First a Dream
by CrayonClown
Summary: Booth and Brennan depart for their year apart, and on the plane to Maluku Brennan has a dream reliving the moment outside of the Hoover building with a different outcome which causes her to re-think her feelings for Booth. Kind of fluffy at times.
1. The Dream

**A/N: Do not read this if you have not seen the series through season 5 finale. Major spoilers from episode 100 and finale.**

**This is just part of one of the big stories I have in the works. I am posting this section as a one-shot for now. I am trying to re-work the big story, but I just cannot seem to get it just right. May not ever be posted as a whole piece.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own them. To be honest not sure I want to. I don't want the type of threats Hart Hanson probably receives from band-wagon fans. True fans, who have been around since the beginning know. Everything happens eventually. **

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First a Dream**

"_Nothing happens unless first a dream…"_

_-Carl Sandburg_

Booth and Brennan turned to walk away from each other. They both turned around for one last glance at each other. It was almost as if they wanted to drop all belongings and run into each others' arms. Then slowly each turns away again to begin their year apart. Her in the Indonesian Islands, and him in Afghanistan.

As she is boarding the plane she has a realization. He essentially went AWOL to come say goodbye to her. There was only one other person who he would do that for, Parker. Parker was his world. She knew that she was important to Booth. She was important enough to take a gamble on, and then back down for her sake because she wasn't ready. He knew he had pushed her too hard without her being ready. Was she as important to him as Parker? This thought played in her mind for a few hours, until she finally fell asleep.

~B&B~

_Booth and Brennan were walking out of the Hoover building. They had just come from Sweets' office. They were telling him of their actual first case together. As they walk down the stairs something was looping over and over in Booth's mind. Something Sweets said was nagging him. "You. It's got to be you. You're the gambler."_

_Booth trails off from his current thought about his father and grabbed Brennan's arm to get her attention._

_"…I'm the gambler. I believe in giving this a chance. Look, I wanna give this a shot."_

_"You mean us? No, the FBI won't let us work together."_

_"Don't do that. That is no reason."_

_He kissed her. He poured his whole heart and soul out into that kiss. And for a second, so did she. But just as quickly as it began, it ended, with her pushing him away._

_"No! No!" she exclaimed, slapping his chest._

_"Why? Why?" he asked with a quizzical look on his face._

_"You, you thought you were protecting me, but you're the one that needs protected."_

_"Protecting? From what?"_

_"From me. I, I don't have your kind of open heart."_

_"Please just give it a chance. That's all I'm asking."_

_"No, you said it yourself. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different outcome."_

_"Well then let's go for a different outcome here. Alright, let's just…hear me out alright? You know when you talk to older couples who, you know, have been in love for 30 or 40 or 50 years, alright, it's always the guy who says, 'I knew.' I knew. Right from the beginning."_

_"Your evidence is anecdotal."_

_"I'm that guy. Bones, I'm that guy. I know."_

_30, 40, 50 years... What was he saying? He knew that I didn't believe in long term monogamous relationships. _

_Then she paused a second to realize that he was telling her that she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. The only one. No one else. He was her partner, best friend. He had drawn a line before that their partnership was only going to be just that. _

_So, why now did he cross that line to kiss me? Did he really love me? Could he love me? How could he love me knowing that I don't believe in marriage or his God as he did?_

_She had come to realize a while ago when Jared returned home from India with a fiancé that there had to be something to this love thing other than just a chemical reaction in the brain and body. She was fond of Booth, her partner and best friend. _

_Could I ever love him? Do I already love him?_

_She impulsively kissed him. This was not a side of Brennan that Booth had ever seen. She was not the affectionate type. This kiss had the feel of passion and love. She was the "let's-just-get-down-to-business-and-fulfill-our-biological-urge" kind of person. He didn't really know what to think. She was kissing him with a kiss that didn't just display lust._

_Does that means she loves me and would also like to spend her life with me?_

_He pulled back slightly, "Bones..."_

_She grabbed his lapels and pulled him back into a kiss not unlike that of the one in her office under the mistletoe. He gave in and kissed her back he tugged on her bottom lip with his teeth seeking access into her mouth. She gave it to him. They embraced each other for several heart pounding moments. _

_Finally releasing each other for oxygen, he spoke out of breath, "Bones, what does this mean? Do we have a chance here? You know, to be together, us?"_

"_Booth, I don't know—I don't know how love feels, but if I were to guess, then maybe what I feel is love. I can't be certain. I don't have anything to compare these feelings to. I know I am not the passionate kind, and I don't anticipate ever being anything other than me. Can you handle that? Because—" she paused for a second, and grabbed his shoulders with both hands and slid her hand down his strong arms to grasp his hands in hers." Because, I do want to give us a chance. I do, Booth. My only concern is that we will jeopardize our friendship. I don't handle change well, but if you can help me through this than maybe we have a chance. I don't know about long-term. I'm afraid that this could end badly for both—"_

"_Bones, I know. I'm scared too. I am. I probably would have never had the courage to tell you I want to spend the rest of my life with you if Sweets hadn't played off of my past gambling addiction by saying that it had to be me who broke the stalemate because I'm the gambler. Look, Bones, I want to give this—us a shot. We don't have to talk about long term. We can take it one day at a time. I have waited five years to tell you I knew the first time I saw you that you were more than just another pretty face. I fell in love with you for who you are. I don't need you to change for me to love you. All you have to do is open up to me, and accept my love for you."_

_Again she kissed him, this time she sought entrance to his mouth as he instantly gave it to her. They were locked onto each other, both reluctant to break the kiss. "Bones, we can't do this here we need to—" _

_She had him back in her embrace, and then released him and finished his thought, "go to your place."_

"_Yeah—but, Bones, I do not want to go just go have sex like a horny teenager. We have plenty of time. We do not have to rush into anything."_

"_Booth, there is nothing wrong with being aroused and wanting to have sex with me. I have never been kissed like you just kissed me before. I am having certain biological urges as well."_

"_But I don't want this to just be about biological urges that need to be released. I don't want to just have sex with you. I want to make love to you."_

"_Booth, I have said before that I don't know what love is, but based on everything you told me about how love should feel I think I am in love. I go weak in the knees around you. I have butterflies in my stomach, well, not literally, but you know what I mean. You are my best friend. We spend so much time together. You know me, and accept that I am socially inept. I know you think with your gut, and I accept that because you have shown me that it can be just as effective as concrete evidence, and sometimes more. Most of all, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you, Seeley. I trust you."_

"_I love you too, Bones." Even if she couldn't say it to him in those exact words, he knew she was trying to tell him she loved him. They walked to his SUV in each others' arms. _

_They arrived at his apartment and ran inside. They were deep in heavy kissing when Booth reluctantly pulled away. "Bones, are you hungry?"_

"_What kind of question is that, Booth? I am very hungry." She said in a very teasing seductive tone._

"_No, are you hungry for dinner. Bones, we haven't eaten, yet. We could fix dinner together, eat off of each others plates, and then put in a movie we never intend to watch. It sounds like a perfect first date. What do you say?"_

"_But if you think about it we have been doing what could be considered the ritual of going on dates for almost five years now."_

"_I know, but this is different. We are now acknowledging our feelings for one another." He took her hands and brought them to his lips placing a nice soft kiss on the top of each one. "This is official Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan togetherness." He pulled her in closer, hugged her, and kissed the top of her hairline as he took a deep breath of her in._

_Her head lay in the space between his neck and shoulder, she turned to place her face on against his neck, breathing in his manly scent of spice and leather, and she kissed his neck and rubbed his back and sides with her exploring hands. She took a breath and asked, "Booth, what's for dinner."_

"_Well, could we make your macaroni and cheese? It's my favorite!" he said with his cheesy boyish grin that had always melted her heart. _

"_Sure. Help me?" she said with a teasing helpless tone. "I know I could do it myself, but I might need some help finding things in your kitchen." She knew that was a lie. She knew where everything was, but for some reason she felt it necessary to let herself need him. She was willing to play coy to allow him to give her the attention she not only needed, but found, to her surprise, she also wanted._

"_I know you know where everything is, Bones, but yeah I'll help you," he said playfully as he picked her up and carried her to the kitchen. Once there he set her down and tickled her side gently. "Although, if I do we may never get done making dinner," he said with a sly wink as he turned to face her as he was putting water in a pot to boil._

"_We have to finish, Booth, or you won't have enough strength or energy to keep up with me."_

"_Are you calling me a wimp, Bones?"_

"_I don't know, are you Seeley?" Hearing her call him by his first name always sends shivers down his spine. Mostly no one else did. It was always just Booth or Agent Booth. _

"_Hey, I think you need evidence that proves otherwise. Okay, for starters, I was a sniper. That alone is enough to debunk the whole wimp idea, but if that isn't enough, the government would not put wimps in the FBI?"_

"_No, I suppose not, Special Agent Seeley Booth. Okay, now that you have a valid claim, maybe you want to demonstrate your abilities for me. You know, for empirical confirmation."_

_With that he practically jumped across the kitchen island and rushed into her arms and whispered, "Count on it," just before taking her mouth in his, each matching stroke for stroke. He had her backed up to the refrigerator door before she knew it. Inching back slowly, but not really wanting to stop she pulled away just enough to say, "Booth, the food."_

"_Bones—Bones, it will—take—time to—boil," Booth managed to say with each word nearly being cut off with a kiss before it began. With that they explored each other very excitedly and passionately until it was time to drain and put the cheese in the noodles. _

_Booth started to stick his fingers in the food and lick them, only to stick it back in and do it all over again. Then he glanced at Brennan who looked amused and almost disgusted at his plying with the food. Leave it to Booth to act like an excited six year old about something as simple as macaroni and cheese. He reached his fingers in one last time, but this time reached over to Brennan who still looked on in amazement and offered her some off of his hand. To his surprise and delight she took him up on it. She grabbed his hand gently and slowly sucked and licked his finger clean._

_Once it was mixed up into one giant bowl he grabbed a spoon, and they walked over to his couch hand-in-hand. He set the bowl down to browse his movie selection. He grabbed one he knew she never even heard of because of the fact that she doesn't really watch TV or see movies. He knew of only a few old classics she had seen. That aside, he knew they weren't going to be watching the movie anyway. _

_He sat down next to her. To make herself more comfortable she shifted slightly sideways, and rested on his side. They took turns taking bites with the spoon Booth had grabbed, even feeding each other at times. Every time Booth fed Brennan a bite she would respond just as he expected she would. "Booth, I am not a baby. I can feed myself."_

"_I am trying to be romantic. I know you are not a baby, Bones, but you are my baby. My Bones. I love you so much. I cannot believe I waited so long to tell you."_

"_I love you too, Seeley." There it was again, his first name, but even more enchanting to his soul was the fact that she had actually said she loves him, too, and this time without dancing around the word love. _

_He gazed into her very twinkling ice blue eyes with his deep brown eyes, and the macaroni was abandoned and quickly forgotten. The bowl was almost carelessly tossed to the coffee table. They leaned in closer to each other, and shared a sweet light kiss that just seemed to only gather momentum. He had already at some point taken his shirt off before even sitting down to eat dinner. Her hands were traveling his rock hard body as it only seemed to get more tense with each passing second. _

_His hands were also doing a little exploring reaching up the back of her shirt and sending shivers down her spine and causing her to breakout in goose bumps. Booth pulled her tank top up, and only broke the kiss to take the shirt over her head and immediately resuming the activity. _

_She reached down and grabbed his cocky belt buckle she adored so much because of how 'Boothy' it seemed to her. Realizing she had a hold of his belt buckle he chuckled and smiled from ear to ear. He also took the opportunity to rid her of her skirt while the kiss was temporarily on hold. Once it was free from his waste she held up the belt buckle telling him, "This is so true." _

_He responded with another gleaming thousand watt smile that more than acknowledged that her comment was indeed true. He didn't have to say a word, but he did, which even further proved her comment. "You know it." He paused for a brief moment. "Hey, Bones?" _

_She had already dug back into him, burying her face into his neck and raking her fingernails into his back. "Hmmm." _

"_Should we move to the bedroom or just continue here. It isn't that I wouldn't want to make love to you on my couch, but I think we would both be more comfortable there...you know my back. Also, I would like our first time to bed a little bit more enjoyable than it would be right here." She was still practically attached to Booth like baby to a pacifier. She reached up slightly and nibbled on his ear and then let out a whisper that sent shivers down his spine and lit a fire in his gut. "I'll take you anywhere Seeley Booth."_

_With that he picked her up once again, and carried her to his room. He was now in his boxers, and she was in simple white cotton bra and panty set. They continued to take turns undressing each other as they approached the bed in a fury of anticipation of breaking the laws of physics, trying to become one. _

~B&B~

Brennan was brought out of her dream state with the enthusiastic shaking her shoulders endured from the overly excited intern. "Wake up, Dr. Brennan. We are about to land. Oh, I cannot wait. This is just going to be the most exciting dig. I cannot believe I am a part of this; just think...EEEKKK!" Daisy shrieked as the entire plane of passengers look on displaying their annoyance toward the young anthropologist.

Daisy was actually still talking, but Brennan didn't hear much after she realized that she had just awoken from the most real dream she had ever had. Everything was clear, vivid, and she could hear every bit, she could feel it, and she could taste it. She was so enamored by how real everything felt she completely forgot about what the dream was actually about until after several minutes had passed by.

_That was so real. Why would my brain fantasize in that way about Booth? Am I feeling guilty for rejecting his gamble? That could be it. Certainly, I don't actually feel this way towards him. What? No. Do I? Do I love him? How can this be? I am a scientist. Love is psychology. I don't believe in psychology. What is wrong with me? _

Brennan was so wrapped up in her thoughts she was unaware of the plane landing.

_Sure, I am somewhat attracted to his alpha male tendencies until they control what I do, and he is pleasantly symmetrical. I have always liked the way he looks. I must be kidding myself! This has to be just biological urges, but why, why would I feel like this about my partner. If anything he is my best friend. He just…happens to have superbly defined bone structure and symmetrical features that suggest he would be a very viable mate. Hmmm…_

The plane had landed and passengers were already starting to gather their belongings as she still just sat there.

_We do know everything about each other, even the troubles in our childhoods and Booth's past as a sniper and how much it troubles him at times. The dream. I loved him in the dream. When Booth first realized he loved me, he was in a coma. Is there something to this dream that is trying to tell me that I love him? It felt so real; so right. I must be; there is no doubt about it. I—I am in love with Seeley Booth._

Daisy quickly chimed in after she noticed her boss still sitting there, "Dr. Brennan we are here and we have landed. You can get your things now. We are getting off of the plane. Hello?—" She started to gently shake her shoulder to get her attention. "Dr. Brennan? Are you okay? Oh, do you have motion sickness. We can wait a few minutes if you need to, and I have some medicine that will settle your—"

"No, Daisy. I'm fine." Brennan was not fine, but she wasn't going to admit that to her giddy mouthy grad assistant. She just realized that she may be in love with her best friend and needed more than just a few minutes. "Really. Let's just get off, and find out where our shuttle is going to pick us up." More than anything Brennan just wanted to get to a place where she could sit in privacy to call Booth. She needed to tell him. Sure, she wanted to do it in person, but there was no way she was going to wait an entire year to tell the love of her life that there was no more "just partners" bull shit.

Daisy nodded in confirmation, but didn't say anything because she knew she had just been lied to, and she could also tell that it would be wise to not ask where there was little privacy. This was perhaps one of the only instances Daisy didn't say something that was out of place and none of her business. Perhaps Daisy wasn't going to be such a horrible person to be around after all. Maybe over time they could be close enough to talk. Still, it was going to be a long year.

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**Yes, episode 100 and season 5 finale were discouraging, as are the spoilers for season 6, but I think it is all building up to something great. While I am not spoiler free, this story is. Lets keep reviews spoiler free so that season 6 does not get ruined for those who do not wish to know anything. Please review.  
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	2. The Revelation

**A/N: Do not read this if you have not seen the series through season 5 finale. Major spoilers from episode 100 and finale.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own them. To be honest not sure I want to. I don't want the type of threats Hart Hanson probably receives from band-wagon fans. True fans, who have been around since the beginning know. Everything happens eventually. **

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**Brennan and Daisy were silent for the walk to the shuttle, for the entire ride to the boat that was going to take them to the dig, and the ride to their residence for the next year. Once there, Brennan walked to her room of the small little apartment. She dropped her luggage and other gear, and unpacked her computer and web cam to set up for a video conference. It was just about 9:00 AM in D.C, so it would not be a problem catching Booth at his office before he got pulled away to his afternoon duties at the base. She knew he would be available as he should just be finishing up paperwork for to hand off his remaining cases. She also knew that it had to be done soon so that all of his remaining unsolved cases could be assigned to other agents during his absence.

A notification popped up on his screen. When he saw it was his Bones requesting a video conference, people outside his office could have sworn he had just saw her in person as he greeted her. "Bones!"

"Booth, I—"

"It's great to see you made it safely to Matukupoo."

"I love you, Booth." It was stated in a way that was so matter of fact and not just an irrational feeling. She didn't even bother to correct him. She needed to get it out.

There was an extended silence between the two. To say he was shocked was an understatement. Not even when he was having hallucinations due to his brain tumor did he have such a feeling. Booth's face looked as if he had just seen a ghost. _Did I just hear what I thought I heard. Did she just say...she loves me? _He had to say something; he didn't want her to think that his feelings had changed for her.

"Bones?" he whispered staring intently at the camera to make it seem as though he was looking her right in the eyes. "Are you—did you just say—"

"Yes, Booth. I love you. I am in love with you, Seeley Booth. I had this dream during the plane ride. I would imagine it would be very comparable to your coma dream. Booth, I came to the realization in the dream." Her eyes were getting slightly misty. "I just could not wait an entire year to tell you. I didn't want anything to happen to you in Afghanistan, and then go through the agony of never being able to tell you. Booth, I love you!"

"I love you, too. I do. Although, I must ask if you are sure because you are always telling me that you don't believe in love or long term relationships."

"I am going to say the same thing that I said to you in my dream. This is hard for me to say because you know I don't take much stock in psychology. So, please listen."

"Okay, Bones. I'm listening."

She remembered what she had said, word for word. It was ingrained in her memory, and forever would be whether Booth ever heard them or not. "Booth—I have said before that I don't know what love is, but based on everything you have told me about how love should feel I think I am in love. I go weak in the knees around you. I have butterflies in my stomach, well, not literally, but you know what I mean. You are my best friend. We spend so much time together. You know me, and accept that I am socially inept. I know you think with your gut, and I accept that because you have shown me that in can be just as effective as concrete evidence, and sometimes more. I think about you when you aren't around. If I haven't seen you in awhile, I can still feel your presence; hell I can smell you even. Most of all, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you, Seeley."

"Bones, that's it. That is love. You are in love with me! I love you so much. I am so happy for you, for me, and for us. Does this mean that—"

She cut him off to finish his thought herself. "Yes, I want to give us a chance, Booth. But, how? We are going to be apart for a year? I barely just got here."

"Well, I know that I will have access to the communications tent about two or three times a week. They have things set up for video calls, phone calls, email, and there is always the old fashioned hand written letter. We could utilize them all. Of course I want to see and talk to you, but I would love to see your handwriting. I already miss every aspect of you, even your nice flowing very legible writing that is all over these reports I am finishing right now. It would be a nice personal touch. Oh, by the way, I loved it when you just called me Seeley. It's just that...well, no one really calls me by my first name, and while I am not particularly fond of it, hearing it come out of your mouth is just...wow."

"Yeah, I know you don't really like your first name, and there are only a handful of people you really allow to call you Seeley. Rebecca and Cam seem to be welcome to.

"Cam only calls me Seeley because I call her Camille. She hates it."

"I just figured that it must mean that only people who are close to you in such as they were are allowed to call you Seeley, and get away with it. I know we haven't had sex yet, but I figured I very well now fall into that category."

"No, Bones. You could have called me Seeley from day one. Remember, it is always they guy who says, 'I knew,' and I did. I knew, Bones. You can still call me Booth, too. Anyway you say my name is going to melt my heart."

"I will. You know you, could call me Temperance or Tempe."

"Hmmm, maybe. I don't know. Well, I mean, I am sure I will, but I like Bones. I am the only one who calls you that except Parker, and only because I let him. It is a very personal name that I have for you. It means a lot to me because I know how much you used to hate it, but I think somewhere deep inside you finally accepted being called Bones because hearing my voice say it melts your heart, too." He said with another cheesy grin. He pulled out his lucky poker chip, and started tossing it in the air.

"Yes, Booth you do melt my heart, and I am sorry I didn't realize it sooner. You. You have done that to me. You have changed me from a cold heartless scientist to a warm and fuzzy emotional softy."

"I didn't change anything about you. You are the same as you have always been. The only difference is that you trusted me enough to let me in you life enough for you to open up to me. I want to know all about your dream. You know about mine. Will you share it with me? I want to know how you came to the conclusion that you love me."

Brennan could feel a flash of warmth flush her face as she thought about her dream. "Well, I don't know. Daisy is in the next room, and I don't want her to overhear. She already knows something is up by my strange reaction on the plane after I woke up. It is none of her business. Also, you are still at the office. Nothing stays secret there for long. There are windows that face out into the building, and people would be able to see it all over your face."

"Oh, so...it must be pretty toasty. Is Dr. Temperance Brennan being shy, because you have been known to just openly make comments about, you know, just about anywhere and around anyone." He looked slightly amused. "I suppose you're right about everyone being able to read my face. People keep walking by smiling as it is just since we have been talking."

"Well, you had their attention from the moment you very enthusiastically answered the call."

"Yeah, well how else are you supposed to greet the person you love when they are half of the world away?"

"I said I love you."

"Yes, Bones, you did. That is the most perfect greeting for the one you love; it meant more to me than any other words you have ever said to me. I love you; I just can't say it enough!"

"I love you too, Seeley."

"Bones, I need to finish all of this paperwork to transfer cases to other agents during my time in the army. It isn't that I don't want to discuss this more, but I really—"

"I know; I need to get settled in, and unpacked. Daisy is probably wondering if I'm okay, and I would rather not clue her into anything just yet. The first thing I did when I got here was shut myself in my room to have this video call with you. I just couldn't wait, and definitely not for a whole year." Brennan sat there staring at her knight in shining FBI armor. "I love you. I have decided that I would like you to know about my dream now."

"Bones, you're stalling. I really do need to get off of here."

"Yeah, I am. Please, Booth. I really want to tell you. I just don't know that I am going to be able to hang up. I need to talk to you."

"Okay, Bones. I will call you tomorrow at the same time you called me today. I know you slept on the plane, but you must be tired. Just get some rest. Tell Daisy that you just need some time to rest. "

"No, Booth. Please. I—it has to do with macaroni, your cocky belt buckle, and a movie neither of us watched."

"No kidding? Hmmm, I knew you always liked that belt buckle."

"Yes, it suits you quite well. Remember, very Boothy, and if I didn't like it, I would not have gotten you another after you were kidnapped."

"Tell me more, please. Everything else can wait a little bit longer. Besides, if Caroline Julian knew that we have finally professed our love for each other she would probably do the paperwork herself."

"What about Cullen?"

"I wouldn't worry about him. What is he going to do, fire his best agent with the highest solve rate? I don't think so."

"Well, if you get fired then so do I. Maybe, we shouldn't talk right now. I do need sleep, and I don't want you to feel all the stress of trying to get all of the paperwork done last minute on my account. I will call you later; how about 7:00 PM your time? It will give you something to look forward to."

"Okay. It is going to be a long day. I love you, Bones." _Man, a guy could get used to saying that!_

"I love you, too, Seeley. Talk to you later."

"Okay, goodbye, Bones."

They sat staring at each other until Booth finally disconnected them as if he were ripping a band-aid off, but right before he did so, he whispered, "I love you, Temperance Brennan." Which made her smile just as the screen went blank.

Brennan then decided she should at least unpack some of her clothes and personal items to take a shower before heading to bed to get a little sleep.

While she was in the shower, some thoughts played through her mind. _I know I always thought that I would never get married, but if I ever do, I want to marry Booth. What about kids? I realized quite some time ago right before Booth's brain tumor was discovered that I do want to have a baby. That was only put on hold when he decided that he couldn't "father" my baby if he couldn't be the father for my baby. He is a very good father to Parker. Would he still want to have a child with me? Should I ask? We won't even see each other for a year, is it too soon to ask? Why can't I stop thinking about this? I just need to relax. There is plenty of time for us to talk about things over the next 365 days. Wow. An entire year. How long have I just been standing here? Did I even wash my hair yet? I will wash it just in case I didn't. I can't believe my lack of focus right now. Shit, Temperance Brennan, focus._

Her mind just kept spinning around these thoughts as her shower lasted until the water ran cold. When she got out of the shower she grabbed her photo of Booth and Parker and set it on the night stand. She stared at it lovingly until she fell asleep.

~B&B~

Booth carried on with his paperwork, but not without some questions of his own. _Did that really just happen? Was I dreaming? Was it a hallucination; oh, my God, is the tumor back? Is she still going to feel this way later? What was so significant in her dream that could have caused her to realize she loves me? Would she ever want to marry me? I know that she doesn't believe in long term relationships, but she has come a long way since I first met her. Is marriage in our future? If I ever get the courage to ask her will she shut me out or run again?_

He had no focus on the work he was supposed to be doing. He would forget to sign the documents for cases being closed after he half-way skimmed them for errors. He found himself having to backtrack just to make sure he didn't skip over anything. Ms. Julian certainly wouldn't care if he was going back into the army or not, she would find a way to rake him over the coals for his mistakes. He needed to get out of the, office and focus his attention elsewhere. Booth had just spent the weekend with Parker so that he could see Brennan before she left for Indonesia. Booth pulled out his phone, and dialed Rebecca's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Becks, it's Seeley. Would you mind if I picked Parker up from school today. I just need some extra time with him be—"

"Yes, that is perfectly fine. I want you to get to see him as much as possible before you go. Are you in town?"

"No, but I am on my way. By time I get there he will be out of school. I just couldn't focus on paperwork earlier, and I just needed some time. Parker can hang out with me today, and I will drive him home later tonight. I am supposed to have a video call with Bones tonight, so I figure he will like to see that she made it there okay for himself. Also, I—just need to be with him. He's my world. So is Bones." _Surely Bones wont mind if I tell Rebecca. She is Parker's mother. I would like to tell him as soon as possible, but it would not be good if I don't consult his mother first. Besides, I trust her._ "Rebecca, I have to tell you. I have to tell someone, and I certainly cannot tell Sweets, Cam, Angela, Hodgins, Cullen, or Hacker. You can't say anything to anyone, not even Parker. Do you promise?"

"Yeah, Booth. I promise. You said Parker was your world and then you added that Dr. Brennan is as well. Did something happen between you two?"

"Actually, yeah. I love her."

"Well, I knew that, Seeley. I think everyone did."

"There's more."

"Did you have sex with her before she left?" she gasped.

"What? No! That isn't what I meant. When I was in a coma I had a dream. I was married to Bones, and at the end of the dream I found out she was pregnant. Long story short, I realized that I love her. Sweets just thought it was because of brain swelling or something like that when he showed me some scans of my brain activity. Not too long after that I told her I loved her. She looked at me with a scared little girl look, and so I guess I freaked out a little and tacked on to that statement 'in an 'atta girl kind of way.' I just couldn't turn her world so upside-down at that moment after just getting her back into town, and resuming our partnership after I was cleared to go back to work."

"Seeley, I had no idea that was how you realized you knew you loved her all along, but I have to say, that I knew there was chemistry between the two the second I met her. Sure, I thought she was strange, but I think you have always looked infatuated with her unique qualities."

"There's more. When I had to get re-certified for my gun, I couldn't shoot worth anything. If there were a gigantic elephant five feet in front of my face, I would have missed it. People at the range were gawking at the fact that Seeley Booth could no longer hit the 'center of a dime' as one jerk put it. I went to Gordon Gordon for help. He told me that I should have her there with me at the range during my re-certification and that I wouldn't be able to miss my mark with her around. I didn't miss. Then—"

"There's more?"

"Yeah, a lot more. A few weeks back, we had just told Sweets that his book was wrong about our first case together. When we told him about our first case together, he came to the same conclusion that he originally had. In his book, he said that we were in love with each other. Then he said that in order to break the stalemate between us that one of us had to make a move. Then, he remembered my little gambling problem, and told me that it had to be me because I'm the gambler. We both just shrugged him off, and walked out on him to grab something to eat. When we were walking down the steps at the Hoover Building, I did it. I told her that I wanted to give us a chance. I told her that I wanted to be one of the old guys after thirty, forty, or fifty years that say they knew. I told her I knew. I kissed her when she brought up that the FBI wouldn't let us continue to work together. She pushed me away." Booth started getting choked up slightly and his voice started to get emotional and uneven. "She rejected me. When I thought she had already accepted this thing in Indonesia, I rejoined the army to go to Afghanistan for a year, so that I didn't have to be here in D.C. without her. Here's the best part. She made a video call to me this morning in my office. I told her hi, and that I was glad to see that she made it safely. The first words out of her mouth were, 'I love you, Booth.' Apparently love comes in the form of dreams because she had a dream on the plane that made her realize we are meant to be together. She hasn't told me about the dream yet, but I imagine she will. Also, I was hoping for us, Bones and I, to talk to Parker about us. So, now you know, but you are the only one. Please, don't say anything to Parker. I just figured that as his mother, you might appreciate a heads up."

"I won't but, you should talk to Dr. Brennan before you ambush her into talking to Parker about it. I do appreciate you telling me though. Thanks. It means a lot to me that you care how I feel, and that you also trust me enough with something so personal. I think it's great."

"Oh, I will, but Bones is great with him. She's crazy about him. I did plan on talking to her first about that and her dream, and then I would like to bring Parker into the room to say hi and talk about it. I would like to see how he feels about me being in a relationship with her, but don't worry about anything. Bones is not going to take your place as his mother. While I think Bones wants kids, and would be happy to treat Parker as her own, I know she wouldn't dream of taking your place."

"Thanks, Seeley. I know sometimes you feel like you have been replaced. You haven't, and I will never let that happen. Parker adores you, and I know he loves Dr. Brennan, too. He will be so excited. To be honest he may already think you guys are an item."

"Well, there was this one time that he tried to set me up so that he could have a pool. Bones stepped up an gave us the extra pool pass for her apartment. Haha. Anyway, I will be there to pick him up from school right as they get let out. Could you call the school so they can let him know that I will be waiting? How do you want to go about getting him back? I know he has school tomorrow, and it is not exactly a short drive. Do you want to maybe meet at a halfway point so that neither of us has to make the full round trip?"

"Yeah, that sounds fine."

"Okay, I will call you later to let you know when and where."

"Be careful. Talk to you later."

"Thanks, Rebecca. Bye." Anxious to see his little boy, Booth ended the call and hit the gas a little more.

_Today is going to be a good day, but this is going to be a long year for all of us._

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_**Remember while I am not spoiler free for season 6, this story is. Lets keep reviews spoiler free so that season 6 does not get ruined for those who do not wish to know anything. Please review.**


	3. The Things Kids Say

**Sorry this took so long to get posted. It has been written for a long time. I just needed to take the time to sit down and proof it, but life happened. I just graduated college this past May and got a teaching job about a week before school started back up so I had to take some time to get everything in order and get used to the routine before I could take enough time to breathe and get back to my Bones and DB obsession. Hopefully, the next updates wont happen almost two months later. **

**Extremely fluffy. Maybe OOC, but who cares. It is my fic. You have been warned. **

**Not mine. If I were a writer or had anything to do with the show, DB would be (at the very least) sans shirt a whole lot more.**

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"Dad!"

"Hey buddy, how was school today?" Booth asked when Parker opened the door up.

"It was okay. I have a lot of science homework. Why did you pick me up today?" Parker looked puzzle. He had just seen his dad."

Booth looked at his little boy for a second before answering. "Well, Parker, you know I leave to go to Afghanistan this Saturday, right." The boy nodded and looked down, suddenly finding his feet very interesting. "I just wanted to see you a few more times before I have to leave. It will be a whole year before I get to see you in person again. I will be able to call some, and even make video calls where you can also see me." There was a pause before he continued after looking at his son and seeing that he seemed really sad. "Hey, Bub what's wrong?"

With tears in his eyes he looked up into his father's eyes and answered, "Well, I know you are going to help train other people to fight bad guys, but I can't help but feel sad because I won't see you for a long time. Dad, I will be ten when you come back. I'm also sad for you though."

Looking intently into his young boys eyes he asks, "Why? Parker, don't be sad for me."

"But—you will miss me and Dr. Bones. You won't have either of us. You won't know anyone over there."

"Yeah, buddy, I will miss you both, but I will have my new army buddies, and my pictures to keep me company. Also, like I said. I will be able to make calls, and that certainly means to Bones as well. Hey, speaking of Bones, I am expecting a call from her later on tonight after she wakes up. Would you want to talk to her?"

"Really? Yeah. I can't wait. When?"

"After dinner. I need to talk to her for a little bit before I let you in on the conversation though. Okay?"

"Yeah, cool. Do—do you think she could help me with some of my homework?"

"I don't know, bud. Maybe, but it might be hard to do through a video call. Okay, so let's plan on going to the diner for dinner. I don't really have much left in my fridge. "

"Oh, can I have a milkshake? Pleeeeeease?"

"Anything you want. Now, just sit back and relax until we get to D.C."

~B&B~

"Parker, why don't you get started on your homework, and then if you come across anything you need help with you can ask Bones. I need to talk to her for a while, okay."

"Yeah, let me know when I can talk to Dr. Bones, too. Do you have anything to drink in the kitchen?"

"No, just beer, and you won't be having any of that until way after you have armpit hair. There are cups in the cabinet and you can get water out of the fridge door. Don't make a mess, please."

"Okay."

A message popped up on the computer that Brennan was calling. Before answering he called out to Parker, "Hey, Bones is calling me right now; don't interrupt us for a while, okay? We need to talk for a bit."

"Got it."

Booth ran up to something shiny, so he could see his reflection well enough to check his appearance and make sure his hair was just right and that he had nothing in his teeth. He put on his best _just for Bones_ smile with those deep dark brown eyes, and answered the call.

"Booth, it's about time you answered. I hoped you wouldn't be too busy, or that you wouldn't forget."

"Hiya, Bones. If your mind has been doing half of the things that mine is doing than you know there is no way I could forget."

"Uh, valid point."

"Besides, I was just making sure I was looking good for my lady."

"How was your day?"

"Well, it's a long story, but to be honest I just couldn't get through the day on my own. My paperwork was sloppy—er than normal. I couldn't focus. All I thought about was you. I decided to go get Parker to spend more time with him before I have to go. I know, I just made the paperwork situation worse, but I wasn't getting anything done today anyway. I figured if I can't be with one of the people who mean the world to me, I can at least be with the other one while I can."

"Oh, so Parker is there with you now?"

"Yeah, he wants to talk to you later, but right now he is in his room and out of earshot...do you maybe want to share that dream with me now?" he flirted.

"Earshot?"

"He can't hear us."

"Good. Ready? My dream started with the night that you decided to go all in, but instead of completely rejecting you, I kissed you after I thought about what you said about the guy always knowing, and that you knew. I kissed you, and that made the difference. You pulled back from me slightly, but I reeled you back in, and finally when we both needed to breath, you asked me what it meant. You asked if it meant we had a chance to be an _us_. So, that was when I said exactly what I said to you on the phone earlier, Booth. I also said that I was afraid of ruining us, and when you also said that you were afraid of that, too. It relaxed me a little. You also said we could take it one day at a time, and just be us. Booth, I love you. You always know exactly what to say to me. I kissed you again after that, but this kiss was more. If we had not been in public at that moment, we would have probably found ourselves engaged in sexual intercourse pretty soon after. You stopped the kiss from going any further, very reluctantly. So, we went to your apartment. We had not eaten yet, and we started to cook macaroni and cheese."

"My favorite!" Booth chimed in with a very cocky grin.

"Yes, I am aware of that fact, and apparently my subconscious wanted to please you. Well, there was a lot of kitchen flirting going on that turned into a toasty light hearted teasing fest. It was really _cute_, Booth. We teased each other, and you didn't have a shirt on. At one point you had me backed up into the fridge. When the macaroni was finally done, we shared a giant bowl and a spoon."

"Wait, we shared a spoon, too?" _And did Temperance Brennan just say cute?_

"Yeah, we took turns feeding each other, but I didn't like be fed because I'm not a baby. That's when you made a point to say that while I'm not a baby, I'm your baby. I'm your Bones. Well, you did put in a movie, but neither of us saw a second of it. We were…_busy_. We were getting pretty into each other, and when I had my hand on your cocky belt buckle we decided to move to the bedroom. You carried me in there, and that is when Daisy woke me up to tell me we were about to land."

"Wow. That's quite possibly the hottest dream I have ever heard. Rivals some of my greatest fantasies that I have had during the years. Dang that Daisy for interrupting your dream," he said with his still cocky grin that never left his face. There was a pause as he looked at her, sighed, and prepared himself for the next topic of conversation. "We have a few things to discuss that I don't think can wait. One of them is sitting in his room doing homework. When do we tell him about us? I know this is still a very new thing for us. There's an us, Bones! I still cannot believe it," he paused again. "Should we wait to tell him? Or would you maybe want to tell him tonight, both of us, together?"

"We can tell him together tonight. I am very fond of Parker. He is a good boy. If anyone one should know it is him."

"Okay, uh..." He hesitated, not sure whether he should tell her that Rebecca already knew. He didn't want her to think that he was just going around telling everyone, but he was even more uncomfortable with the idea of keeping it from her. "Bones, I had to tell Rebecca. I figured she should know from me rather than having Parker coming home and dropping the bomb on her. I just needed to talk to _someone _about it, but could not just talk to anyone at the lab, and I certainly couldn't talk to Sweets. That is also something I think we should do together, in person. I would like you to be here in person to tell Parker, but I know that can't happen, and I need him to know about us now. I cannot keep it from him. He loves you, and Rebecca says that he probably already thinks we are together."

"I don't have a problem with that. She is his mother, and she does need to know. It is like when you want to know about the men in her life. It affects Parker, and I understand that. I also understand the need to tell someone. I was actually hoping to have a chance to call Angela pretty soon. I certainly cannot confide in the one familiar person I have here. She gets under my skin in normal circumstances, and information like this...well, everyone in Indonesia would likely go deaf from all of the squealing."

"Well, you can feel free to tell Angela; I know she has been dying for this to happen since, well, forever."

"Thanks. I will call her later." She sighed. She didn't know whether or not this was a good time to bring up some of the thoughts she had in the shower or if she should wait until they were face to face in a year. She could see that he was also thinking hard about what to say next. Brennan had always been a very straight to the point person, so she just let it out. "Booth, I want kids, I want kids with you. I love Parker, but I want some that are a little of both of us." She paused, "Will you father my children?" She asked bluntly, which was one of the things about her character that he so loved. Still, the question took him by surprise.

"Bones, you are the only one I want to have children with." He smiled

"But Rebecca—"

"Yeah, she doesn't count. She gave me Parker but she doesn't love me, and I am not in love with her. It's all you, Bones. She is the mother of my son; I care for her, but she isn't my everything. You are." Booth was starting to get a little teary as he kept talking. "You have stuck by me through everything that has happened to us, from you being kidnapped by a rogue agent, being kidnapped and buried alive by the gravedigger, me getting kidnapped by the gravedigger and nearly being blown up, my brain tumor, and everything else that put us through the wringer together. We were strong together before, and now our bond will make us even better."

"We are already the best. You know, our kids are going to be super smart and super strong like their parents."

"Bones, you would normally call that speculation."

"No, it's genetics. You are a tall muscular man, and very symmetrical. You are what I have heard Angela call a stud. Your brown eyes would likely be a dominant trait. Both of my parents have light colored eyes, so I have two recessive genes for light colored eyes. In all likelihood our children will have brown eyes like yours unless you carry a recessive gene for light colored eyes. Also, I—well, I am incredibly intelligent. While, I am not a social moth—"

"Butterfly, Bones, it's social butterfly."

"Okay, while I am not a social _butterfly_ I do believe our child would get those abilities from you. Our child will have my intelligence with your gut."

"You have thought about this a lot, haven't you?"

"Well, yes." She paused unsure of whether it would be wise to elaborate. She didn't really feel like drudging up what happened back when she first asked him for his sperm. She chose to continue on with her original thought, hoping she wasn't being too insensitive. "I did ask you to father my baby a few years back for a reason. There were many factors that I took into consideration for that decision. Ultimately, after everything happened with your brain tumor and surgery, I was actually quite disappointed that we did not go through with it."

"Well, now we have a chance to do this the right way. Bones, I have always wanted you to have my child, but just not that way. And definitely not without actually being the father."

"I just wish we don't have be apart right now."

Sensing the need to change the subject before they both got any more depressed about having to spend the year apart he said, "Hey, I bet Parker is just beside himself right now, should I go get him?"

"Yes. I would like that very much."

"Okay, I'll be right back. I love you."

As he stood up from his chair to go get his boy, his waistline flashed the shiny red cocky belt buckle into view. "Hey Parker? Are you ready to talk to Bones?"

The little boy grabbed his homework and ran into the room. "Dr. Bones! Did you have a good nap? I love to take naps, but we don't get to in school anymore. They said we are too old for—"

Booth chimed in. "No, you can never be too old for a nap. They just meant that you are big enough to make it though the day without having to have a nap. Younger kids cannot do that, son."

"Oh, well anyway, I have some homework with me. I have done most of it, but I need help on a few of my science questions."

"Oh, science. That's right up my service road," Brennan chimed in.

"Alley, Bones. Right up your alley." Booth snickered.

"Right, my alley. Science, what kind of science?"

"It is a worksheet on vertebrates and invertebrates. I have to be able to identify whether an animal has bones or not. I already did most of them, but there were a few I left blank."

"Which ones?"

"Sharks, turtles, scorpions, birds, frogs, and snakes."

"Okay, let's start with sharks. Their structure is made of cartilage, so they do not have bones, which makes them an—"

"Invertebrate!"

"Great! Now turtles, birds, snakes, and frogs all have bones. So they are—"

"Vertebrates! But you left out scorpions. What are they?"

"Well, they have an exoskeleton, which means their hard shell on the outside is what makes them hold their shape. They don't have bones."

"Okay, so they are an invertebrate."

"Right, anything else?"

"No." He looked at his dad for a second, and then just blurted out the question that was on his mind. "Why was dad so excited to get to talk to you? Look at him, he looks like he has just been to Chuck E. Cheese. I know you are a long ways—"

Booth cut his overly observant son off for a second time. "Well, I had something important that I had to discuss something with Bones that also affects you. We can tell you now, though. The reason I look like I have just came back from the best video arcade ever is because Dr. Bones and I are together."

"No, you aren't she is on the other side of the—"

_Great, now my kid is starting to think as literal as Bones!_

Before Booth could say anything Brennan helped out, "Parker, what your dad is saying is that we love each other and we have decided to enter a romantic relationship."

"Uh, Bones, he's nine. He doesn't need to know much else." He turned to look at his son, "we have decided that we are going to be together like a family. I love Bones with all of my heart, and she is the woman I would like to spend my life with."

"When Daniel's dad had a girlfriend he said that he would always get stuck with a babysitter because his dad would always take her out. He also said that she was always around. Dad, don't you already take her out all the time, and isn't she always with you even during your time off? I also thought she gave us access to her pool."

"Yeah, what are you getting at, son?"

"Well, whether you want to admit it. I think you have been together before this, you just didn't know it yet. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out."

"Booth," Brennan asked. "How is it that everyone seems to have known before we did?" She was very puzzled.

"Bones, we were partners. We had to be careful to not jeopardize it in anyway by complicating things until we were both ready to admit that we had feelings for each other. It was important that we did not push each other too hard for something that one of us may not have been ready for."

"Thanks, Seeley. I did need time. It was something that I have felt for a while now, but I didn't know what it was. Then I freaked out when you said you wanted to give us a chance. I was not ready for that. I was also concerned that I was not able to change. I have, Booth. You changed me."

Parker was still standing there watching when he realized that maybe he should give them more time to themselves. "Hey, Dr. Bones. I have finished my homework now, so I am going to go play one of dad's insane video games so you guys can talk some more. Dad? Are you going to ask her to marry you? Because that would be awesome!"

Booth's eyes went wide when he heard the question that had been on his mind earlier. He didn't know how to respond. He opened his mouth a few times as if to say something, but he couldn't think of anything.

Brennan was also unsure of what Booth was going to say. He was always respectful of the fact that she held different beliefs than he did. He teased her sometimes in a playful manner, but he never made fun of or belittled her for anything she believed. It was just another of the many things that she loved about him. She had been thinking about marriage earlier as well. She knew that if there was anyone worth marrying, it would be Booth. She chimed in to save Booth. "Parker, I have always said that marriage is an—" She paused knowing that Booth was anxious to hear what she was going to say. She decided that it would be best to just skip to what she really wanted to say rather than explain her beliefs. "If your dad were to ever ask me, I would say yes. I love him. I didn't think I was capable of that. I didn't think I was capable of doing and feeling many things your father has taught me over the past five years."

"Thanks, Dr. Bones. That's all I wanted to know. Goodbye. I miss you!" Parker walked out of the room and left his father in a stunned state to continue their conversation in private.

"Bones, you—"

"I know, Booth, but it's true. If I could ever see myself marrying anyone, it is you."

"God," he whispered as he looked to the ceiling. He took a deep breath, and just impulsively laid it on her. "Temperance Brennan, will you marry me?" _Holy shit! Seel you are an idiot. Did you really think that it was a good idea to propose over a video call? Pull it together._

"Booth, I already said I would say yes. Didn't that count for anything?"

"Yes, but just humor me. This is important. Will you marry me?"

"Yes, Seeley Booth. I will. I will marry you. I love you so much; it hurts to not be able to kiss you right now." Tears were now freely flowing down her cheeks. "This is why emotions confuse me. Why is something that should be a happy thing so painful?"

"I know, Bones it hurts me to not be close to you right now, too. I would give anything to be able to kiss you right now." Booth was also tearing up. "We can get you a nice ring when you get back. Can we wait to tell Parker? It is one thing to tell him about us now, but I think this is a face-to-face kind of thing—for everyone." _Oh, so, you can propose over a video call, but simply telling people so they don't have to wait an entire year makes any bit of sense? Stupid. Angela is gonna be pissed. Hodgins is going to think it was a conspiracy all along. Sweets is gonna have a coronary at the ripe old age of twelve._

"Whatever you think is best. You are the people-person. I assume that I should also wait to tell Angela about the engagement. Anything I tell her will probably also be told to Hodgins."

"Before I forget to tell you, I sent something in the mail to you today. I should have given it to you before you left, but I didn't have time to go to my apartment when I left the base. I don't know when you will get it, but I thought I should say something just so you would know to expect it. You know the Saint Christopher medal that I wear around my neck?"

"Booth you shouldn't—"

"No, you need it. It isn't mine because I still have mine, but I got you one. It is said to protect travelers. You are traveling. I am going to be traveling. Now we will each have one."

"You know I am not superstitious."

"I know; it's a gift, Bones. It can be the thing that symbolizes our engagement. I didn't know that I was going to ask you to marry me, obviously, but it is better than nothing. I know you wouldn't want to necessarily show off to Daisy that you are engaged by wearing a flashy ring. I also know that since you are on a dig that you would not be likely to wear a ring."

"I—I don't know what to say, other than I love you. Booth, I—can't stop crying. This just all seems so unreal to me. I cannot believe this is happening. We are engaged. This is something I thought I would never—"

"They are happy tears; it is okay to cry. Look at me, macho army sniper slash FBI special agent swimming in my own happy tears. You're turning me into a softy, Bones."

"Speaking of army, how did you manage to get off from the army less than a week before your departure?"

"Simple, Bones. I called in sick. I just didn't tell them I was love sick." _Way to be corny Seel._

"You shouldn't lie. You aren't sick. You really need your training this week so you can come home safely. I cannot lose you now."

"You won't. Look, it was just for today; I needed some way to keep my mind occupied. Tomorrow will be better since I know for sure that there is a future for us, and that there is no longer any question what kind of future. I have things to look forward to in a year. Besides, I am just going to train other people to do what I am great at. I won't be on the front lines or anything."

"Remember, don't be a hero."

"I know. Hey, I hate that this time has come already, but I really need to get going so that I can meet Rebecca halfway and drop Parker off with her."

"Okay, it's fine; I understand. Parker has school in the morning. Well, the day is just really getting started here, and Daisy hasn't even seen me since we have arrived. Hopefully, she followed suit and just went to sleep so that we can get into this new time zone quickly. Okay, so I will talk to you soon. Call me whenever you can. It doesn't have to be video you know. I like to hear your voice. I will take contact with you anyway I can get it."

"That sounded almost dirty," he said with a smirk. "We can't start that, or I won't ever be able to disconnect. So, I love you, and I will talk to you as soon as I can."

"Okay, tell Parker bye for me. I love you, too, Booth. Bye"

"Bye, Bones." Once again, like a band-aid someone had to end the call. This time it was not Booth. He found himself wishing she had waited longer before disconnecting.

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**Don't you just love B/B+P**

**Ready. Set. Review!**

**Less than two weeks until season 6! **


	4. Spill it, Bren!

**Okay, so this one is a little shorter than the other chapters, but come on…I think Angela's call deserves it's own chapter. And this was just a good place to cut it off considering the scenes after the phone call don't really relate to it at all. I actually need to get back to writing this one since I have fixed most of what I already had written. I just need to find the time. -sigh- Who needs real life anyway? So, it may be several days before I can update this one.**

**Yesterday, one of my adorable preschoolers was playing dress up and she was wearing a unicorn outfit. She meowed at me. Cutest thing ever!**

**Not Mine. Sad, I know.**

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She grabbed her phone, and did not waste any time calling Angela. Brennan knew they had not yet left for Paris, and they did say to call them to let them know that she made it safely to the islands.

"Come on Ange, pick up. Answer your—"

"Hello. Brennan? Is that you?"

"Yes. Hi, Ange! I am just calling to let you know that I made it here safely. This is a nice little apartment they have us in. It is way better than some of the places I have stayed in during digs. I am actually quite impressed, and must say I was expecting to be living in a tent for a year."

"That's great, sweetie. You sound beside yourself."

"I don't know what that means; how could I be next to myself? That is a physical impossibility."

"It means you sound very happy. I can practically hear your smile. I just figured you would be more tired from all of the traveling and the jet lag. Wait, something is up. Spill it, Bren!"

"I knew I couldn't hide it from you, not even over the phone, and actually I didn't just call you to tell you I made it here safely. Ange, Booth and I—" She didn't get the chance to finish as her best friend was already doing exactly what Brennan knew would happen the instant Angela heard the news.

There was a squeal on the other end of the line, "oh, sorry, please continue." She said as she had a beaming smile on her face that Hodgins caught a glimpse at. Even if he didn't see the shit-eating-grin on his wife's face, he definitely heard the world's most earsplitting squeal that emanated from the artist.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing, shush so I can hear her."

"Angela. We are together. As in the I-told-him-I-love-him kind of together. It just happened. I had a very eye-opening dream on the plane to Maluku and the first thing I did after arriving here was call him. When he answered I just blurted that I love him. We talked, a lot, and now we are going to give us a try. Listen, can you keep this a secret? Sweets cannot know. He cannot know until we get back. We do not want to get back and find we have been assigned different partners. You can tell Hodgins, but only because I know he is sitting right there. Married people shouldn't have secrets."

"I appreciate that. Hey, y—you were the one to say you loved him first?"

"Yes, but not really. There is something you don't know about."

"Bren? What happened?"

"A few weeks ago, right before the case in my hometown, Booth and I went to see Dr. Sweets about his book he wrote about us. I wanted to correct him on a few things. For one, he was wrong about the first case we had worked together. He didn't know there was one before the Cleo Eller case. Do you remember that case?"

"Yeah, it was really a first for all of us. I had never seen human remains like that before. Zach and Hodgins practically loathed each other. You never really explained the night we got fired from—"

"I know. It was…personal." She took a deep breath. "Okay, well Booth got me drunk, and then fired me for hitting a judge, twice. Something about being a liability to the case."

"Well, that explains the hangover and cloud of tequila fumes..."

"Well, back when it happened, I implied that since we weren't partners, and you know—I told him that meant that we could have sex. We walked out into the rain and kissed. He hailed a cab, and I got in but told him that I wasn't going to sleep with him because I didn't want it to be a drunken act. I waved bye as I rode away. I found out later than instead of going to the pool bar to gamble, he went home. Later, I was somewhat pissed that he got me drunk, fired me, and then didn't sleep with me. We solved the case, but some things happened between us, and I hit him and told him I hated him because of something he did, and some very ugly words were exchanged. We didn't talk for a year, until we were reassigned to each other for the case about the senator's daughter. Ever since then, we have done this dance around each other that has apparently grown into a deep bond for both of us. During Booth's coma dream, he was married to me, and at the end of the dream he found out that I was pregnant. When he woke up, he realized he was in love with me. Sweets said that it may have been just because of the surgery, when he showed Booth the brain scans. Well, when we were talking to Sweets about his book, he said he always knew that if we kissed the dam would break. I am not exactly sure what he meant by that, but he looked as if we had just destroyed all of his hard work by telling him about our actual first case. He said that one of us had to break the stalemate between us. He pointed to Booth, and told him that it had to be him because he was the gambler. Booth looked like he might pass out, and then finally he asked me if I wanted to go get dinner. And we left."

"Well, that explains a lot that has happened over the years. It explains why you two seemed to hate each other when you were assigned to each other. Okay, so, you just left? So, did anything happen?"

"Yes. This is the hard part. We were walking down the steps of the Hoover Building and we were talking and all of the sudden he stopped. He took a deep breath, let it out, and said, 'I'm the gambler.' Then he said something that stopped my heart. He said, he wanted to give us a chance, and I told him that it wouldn't work because the FBI wouldn't let us work as partners. Then, he kissed me. I pulled out of it, and I told him that I couldn't do this. It couldn't happen because I didn't want to hurt him because I couldn't change. Then he started talking about how it is always they guy who says after thirty, forty, or fifty years that he knew. He told me he knew. He knew from the first time he saw me giving a lecture at American University. Angela, he was talking about _fifty_ years from now."

"Awe, sweetie! That was one of the most romantic things I have ever heard, and you turned him down. Are you crazy?"

"Ange, I know now that it was a mistake. I made him promise that we could still work together. It has been a strain on us ever since. The case in my hometown where we had to pretend to be married was really hard on Booth, especially when we danced. Also, the gravedigger case slowly ate away at both of us. I really just needed some time away to put things into perspective, but Ange on the plane I had this dream. The scene of us outside of the Hoover Building played in my mind, and instead of turning him down I accepted his wager and also went all in. In the dream I realized that I love him. Not, only that, but I might have realized that I can see myself _with _him forever. I cannot say that about any other men I have been with. I cannot say for sure, but I think the only reason I was willing take off for a year was because I was running from him. It scared me, because I don't believe in long-term monogamous relationships or marriage like I know he would want. I just realized too late for both of us that I didn't want to leave him. Now I'm in Indonesia, and Booth is back in the army and will be going to a war zone. Angela if something happens to him over there—"

"I know, sweetie. Of course you were running from him. You were scared. I know you, Brennan. You are afraid to get too close to anyone. You are afraid they will leave you. Booth is not going to leave you. He only rejoined the army because he knew you weren't going to be here, so there was no point in staying and being forced to work with some other forensic anthropologist or worse yet the FBI squints. Also, nothing is going to happen to him. He is only training people, not fighting."

"You have no way of knowing what will happen. I know he told me he would be relatively safe, but I still cannot help but think about things like that. Anyway, I just thought that I should at least tell my best friend. I know that I cannot talk to Daisy. She is annoying at her best anyway."

"Yeah, thanks for telling me. Don't worry Sweets or Cam; they won't hear it from me or Hodgins. I understand the importance of this secret. I am so glad you told me, and I am really happy for you. This is going to be a hard year for you. Hey Bren, I need to get off of the phone. I really need to start getting things packed. I also need to go pick up our passports. I can't believe we fly out in two days. Keep in touch, okay? I will email you when we get there. I know you will be busy."

"Yeah, maybe the busy schedule will make this go fairly quickly. I can only hope. I may end up killing Daisy, though."

"Like it or not, Bren, you need her. She is very good at what she does, and you never know she may be a good person to talk to about this. Remember she did leave Sweets behind as well. She may try to open up to you about that, so be prepared for that if it happens."

"Yes, she is brilliant, and maybe you're right. Just…not yet. If she does try to talk to me about Sweets I will try to help her if I can. Okay, I know you need to go. Have a good trip."

"I will. You stay safe in that jungle of yours. Talk to you later."

"Okay, bye, Ange."

She hung up the phone and started to get ready for the day.

* * *

**So, next chapter may have a little bit more Parker in it as father and son have a nice little chat before he get returned to his mother. Also, we get our first insight into the project. I do not plan on being too into the actual project as I don't really have the time to do a lot of research to sound intelligent enough to pull it off. I do plan on giving brief highlights of the year for both Booth and Brennan as we get more into things. Next on the agenda would be getting Booth to Afghanistan. And then going from there. I am open to suggestions for different ideas that could happen to them over the year. **

**Review, please.**


	5. Keeping in Touch

**Yeah, I know; it's been since September. Really there is no excuse other than I lost the inspiration of this story with the start of season 6. Part of the problem had been real life getting in the way as well as my big huge ginormous fic "The Jelly Bean in the Bones" taking flight and soaring. That one and a few others since have been my escape from the RL Bones. Since things are back on track on the show, I have started to pay a little more attention to this one again. I hope to be consistent with posting, but as my history with my other fics goes, that has not always been the case. Now that I've re-read and written some on this one, I have a nice little backlog of letters and communications for this one.**

**I know by now that you'll probably have to re-read the first four chapters if you don't remember them, considering it's been like eight months since the last update. In the case that you do need to re-read, I hope that you enjoy it all over again. :)**

* * *

"Hey, Bub? I have an idea. Before you go, would you like to write Bones a letter? I can write her one, too, and I can send them before I go to Afghanistan."

"YEAH!" The boy exclaimed excitedly before rushing off to grab paper and pens from his room. While he was in there, he decided to grab his markers, too.

He ran back into the living room. "I'm going to draw a picture, too!"

"That sounds like a great idea, Parker. I know she'll love it, but let's make this quick; we don't want to be late meeting your mom."

"Okay." The boy agreed, getting to work immediately on his picture.

As Booth sat there writing his letter, he thought back to his own dream that caused him to realize his feelings for his partner. Now here they were going their separate ways for a year, so she could gain some perspective. It had taken her less than twenty-four hours into that whole year for her to gain that perspective. Now, he just hoped that she didn't use the rest of the year to over-think things and change her mind.

While a year isn't that long in the grand scheme of life, it's an eternity when you're waiting to be in the arms of the one you love.

.

The Booth boys made their way out of the house and got on their way to meet Rebecca halfway to get Parker home at a decent time. They had been driving in relative silence only occasionally talking to bring up plans for their last visit before Booth had to leave for Afghanistan. Finally, Booth got the courage to ask his son what he really thought while he still had a moment alone with the boy.

"Parker, it is just you and me right now. Are you _really_ okay with Bones and me being a couple. It affects you, too, and I wouldn't want you to feel negative about anything. So, if there is _anything_ on your mind that you want to share with me or if there is _anything_ you want to ask me, now would be the time. I won't be here for a _whole_ year, you know."

"Daaad." Parker said in a tone way beyond his years, as if Booth should have known better than to ask. "Why do you think every time we do something I ask if Bones can come, too?"

"I just want to make sure you understand because this is very important to me, not just because I love her, but because I love you, too, and I need my two favorite people to both be happy."

"Trust me, dad. I love Bones. She's awesome; she likes gross stuff and she's nice to you. Doctor Bones is definitely better than mom's flavor of the month."

Booth almost choked on the gasp of air he just took as he didn't know if he should be elated that his son loved the woman he planned on spending the rest of his life with or if he should be appalled at his son's words. It took him a few seconds to come up with anything to say. He didn't disagree with his son's words, but he couldn't just let potentially hurtful words come out of his boy's mouth like that with no ramifications. And God help him if Parker repeated it in front of Rebecca. It would be all his fault that he'd picked up language like that as far as she would be concerned. He is raising his son to be a gentleman. "Parker Booth! Where on earth did you hear words like that?"

"Jimmy Cole's dad always has a different girlfriend with him when he comes to our hockey games. I heard Caleb Johnson ask Jimmy if the woman he was with was his flavor of the month. Mom has had many boyfriends over the last few years, so I just thought that it applied to her, too." He shrugged as he played with his dinosaurs on the center console.

"Parker, it isn't nice to say things like that about people, especially about your mother. It implies something not very nice. You need to show her a little respect. Let's not bring that up anymore, okay Bub?"

"Okay."

.

Booth pulled up into the rest area he had agreed to meet Rebecca. They were worried about being a few minutes late because it had taken him a little longer to get Parker ready to go since they had decided to write letters to Brennan. As it turned out, though, when they arrived, they were the first ones there. They waited for Rebecca for almost twenty minutes before she arrived.

She got out to help Parker get his stuff.

"Mom!" He shouted as he climbed from the rental car. Booth had already turned in the FBI issued SUV, so he was stuck with the rental until he had to leave.

"Did you have a good time with your dad?" She asked, already knowing he would be excited for his father and Temperance.

"Yeah! We talked to Doctor Bones from all the way across the world. It was so awesome."

"I'll bet." She replied enjoying her son's happiness now, because she knew that the moment he realizes that this is the last time he'll see his father for a long time that it'll be hard to see him so sad and missing his father."

"And guess what else! Doctor Bones is dad's girlfriend now!"

It took all Booth had in him to not immediately correct Parker and announce the engagement.

"Wow, that is exciting, Parker." She looked over to Booth with a genuine smile. "I'll bet they are both really happy."

"Oh, and me and dad wrote her letters and I drew her a picture."

"That's very nice of you Parker. I'm sure your dad can get us the address and you can send her letters and pictures when you send them to your dad in Afghanistan. How does that sound?"

"Awesome!"

"Are you ready to go Parker?" She asked, knowing that this was going to be hard for her son and for Seeley. She could already see the tears in Seeley's eyes as he took a deep calming breath.

"Come here, buddy, give your old man a big hug." Booth said with a thick voice. "A year will seem like forever, but when I get back, we'll spend a lot of time together. You, me and Bones. You be good for your mom."

"I will."

"No kissing any girls yet."

"Not a chance."

"No smoking, no drugs, no profanity, no back talking, no girls…"

"Dad…I'm eight."

"Yeah, and you'll be almost ten when I get back. You'll probably be a few inches taller, too. Just mind your manners. You're a good boy. I know you won't let me down."

Booth's mind flashed to all of things in his son's life that he had missed so far due to being a weekend dad. Now he was going to miss an entire year of those precious weekends. He only hoped that keeping in touch with the two most important people in his life would be easy once he got to Afghanistan. Communications have significantly improved since his time in Kosovo with the Rangers, but it was still a warzone and he wasn't sure what to expect really. He had been told that on top of phones, they had computers with internet so they could have access to email and Skype available, but there would be so many people vying for time on them that he didn't know how often in his busy teaching schedule that one would be available for him to use.

"Goodbye; I love you dad." Parker said pulling out of the big bear hug.

Booth pulled him back into the hug.

"Dad, you're squishing me." He heard Parker say in a muffled voice against his chest.

Booth kissed his son on the forehead. "I'll write you when I can to get you those addresses, okay? I love you, Parker."

Rebecca walked over to Booth as he stood to his full height. She gave him a brief hug. "Come back safely; he needs his father in one piece." She kissed his cheek. "Goodbye, Seeley."

"Bye." Booth choked out as he stood back and waved to Rebecca and Parker as they got into the car.

He stood there and watched until they drove away.

Before they had left, he had called Brennan's publisher to get mailing address for the dig site. Now, after he arrived back in DC, he was going to mail the letters. With any luck, she would have them before he arrived in Afghanistan, and then once he got there, he would write her again.

~B&B~

Daisy wanted to get out of the small stuffy apartment and go exploring as soon as she could, but she didn't want to go alone. She was beginning to wonder if Doctor Brennan was just going to ignore her for the entire trip. Daisy was sitting on the couch trying to find a DVD to watch on her laptop when Brennan emerged from the privacy of her room with a smile on her face.

"Ready to go to the dig site to check things out? I know we don't officially start work for a couple of days, but I think we should at least familiarize ourselves with the area and the lab in which we will also be spending our time." She spoke as if there wasn't anything else on her mind. She did seem a little more peppy than usual to Daisy, but she wasn't going to find a way to make Doctor Brennan mad at her by asking about her state of mind.

.

"Wow, Doctor Brennan, the lab they have set up for us is pretty high tech for being in the middle of an island jungle. Did you get a chance to walk down to the dig site yet?" Daisy asked with bright flashing eyes. Her excitement was barely contained.

"Yes, I just came from there. It does look promising. The lab is okay. It isn't the Jeffersonian, but adequate for what we intend to do. Did you and Doctor James get a chance to talk about the weather tendencies in the area and the effects it could have on the remains? I have already conferred with him over the phone, but you should also be aware of the climate here. We do not need any accidents out there with these bones or the digs sites. Though preservation of the remains is of high priority, we do not need anyone passing out from heat exhaustion. The humidity here makes it seem at least almost twenty degrees hotter than it actually is. Also the potential for flooding in this area is highly likely should a heavy storm pass through."

"Yes, I understand, Doctor Brennan. I have not talked to him yet. Doctor Baxter says he is not in the lab today, but will be here after 2:00 pm tomorrow."

"I would like to walk back down to the dig one last time before we go."

They were walking down the path passed the communication hut and towards the dig site. The dig site, itself, was a series of volcanic caves that had been uncovered because of erosion due to the often very wet climate. As they walked down the path, Brennan pointed out important areas of the site to Daisy. She pointed to the communication hut as they passed it as well as a few housing huts placed there in the event that they needed to stay at the sight rather than go back to the tiny apartment. Then she pointed out the medical hut that was right next to the one for food and nourishment.

Brennan decided to check out the medical hut and see if anyone was in there. As the lead Anthropologist on the site and head of the project, she felt that she should get to know the people she would be working with. She introduced herself and Daisy. While they were there, Doctor Anderson gave them both a large tablet to prevent malaria.

They went down to the site to check out the surrounding area. The caves were not yet to be explored as they didn't have any safety equipment with them, and Doctor Brennan felt that Daisy's inexperience and accident-prone hyperactive personality would not make her an ideal person to make an initial exploration of a cave with. With her luck, an earthquake would occur and they would survive but get stuck in the cave and then she would literally be annoyed to death by Daisy's rambling.

Doctor Brennan walked around cataloguing the types of foliage around the area to determine if any would be poisonous or have the potential to cause problems when it came time excavate some of it out to clear the area to make it easier to work. She also studied the soil, rocks and sediment around the area to get a feel for what the inside of the cave might be like. She couldn't help through all of this but to feel an immense sense longing to be back home with her team, as everywhere she turned, something reminded her of Doctor Hodgins. The plants, bugs, dirt, rocks…all of it reminded her of him, and how he would be so excited to study some of these things on this unique remote island. She took out her camera and started taking random shots. She would definitely have to send pictures.

Pictures. That thought reminded her of her dear friend, Angela. Everything on this relatively untouched island was picture perfect. Angela would definitely enjoy the pictures as well, but she also figured that many things on the island had an artistic quality that the artist would find appealing and be able to draw inspiration from.

Then, there was the smell of the island. Like nutmeg and cinnamon. Many different spices really. Now she has firsthand knowledge of why the Maluccian islands were formerly known and The Spice Islands. The smell was pleasant, and not at all indicative of the muggy environment as one would expect. It was comforting. Soothing. _It smells a lot like Booth_, she thought. _He so often smells of sandalwood and cinnamon._

After that, her thoughts wouldn't leave Booth. She walked back through the jungle with Daisy by her side, not saying a word to her at all. Daisy was surprisingly quiet as well; it was almost as if she had sensed the somber change in Brennan's mood.

When Brennan and Daisy got back to their small flat, Brennan searched the cabinets for food. She found some cans of soup and heated them up for their dinner.

The silence was getting to her as she stood there at the small gas burner with stirring the soup. Angela had told her that maybe talking with Daisy would be helpful. She really didn't have anyone else to talk to unless she were to make phone calls, but the time difference would mean that no one would be awake right now. Besides, she just talked to Booth a few hours ago.

She thought about it some more as she and Daisy sat at the small table and ate. Daisy did also leave someone behind to come to the Maluku project, she reminded herself as well as the fact that she would be living with this woman for a year and it would be hard to not eventually just talk with her.

"Daisy?"

She looked up from her soup, surprised that Brennan had called her name. "Do you need something, Doctor Brennan?"

"I—uh," she took a deep breath and swirled her spoon around in the bowl as she looked at a spot on the table. Then she looked up with sudden determination.

"Pass the crackers, please?"

"Oh, sure." Daisy said handing her the sleeve of crackers.

Brennan fumbled the package of crackers before it tore unexpectedly and sent bits of broken crackers flying.

"Um, I'm sorry, Daisy. I'm being ridiculous. I don't know why I can't just talk to you. There seems to be this vast disconnect from my brain to my mouth regarding certain issues. I don't know if it's because I find your personality to be grating at times or if it's because I'm overly emotional and to place these thoughts on you would be highly unprofessional. I don't—"

"You miss Agent Booth." Daisy said calmly.

That caught Brennan off-guard. She would have expected an Angela-worthy squeal of delight at the realization.

"I—yes." Brennan simply replied.

"I miss Lance, too, but I'm trying my hardest to move on. He has expressed his wishes to not wait for me to come back."

"I'm sorry, Daisy."

"No, it's fine. I knew this, but I left anyways. It seems to me that you have come into your feelings for agent Booth fairly recently."

"I don't think it's recent. I've felt them for a long time, but I guess I just identified it as being more than a platonic kind of love."

Daisy smiled at the admission. "When?"

"On the plane. I know, that sounds ridiculous, but I had this _very_ eye-opening dream. I just realized that I cannot live my life without him, Daisy."

"So when you spaced out after the landing…"

"Yeah. I was thinking about the dream and what it meant. It was startling, at first. I didn't know what to think about such a realization. And when we got here, I went straight to the room and initiated a video call to Booth."

"So, you weren't just ignoring me? It'd be okay if you were. Lance has told me on occasion that I can be a little much to handle long periods of time with if one isn't used to being around me. I'm working on it though."

"I've noticed, but no, I was not ignoring you on purpose."

"Okay, you talked to Agent Booth. Did you tell him?"

"That I love him? Yes. That was actually my first words to him."

"Aw, that is sooo romantic."

"We've decided to enter a romantic relationship, but it's going to be so hard spending a year apart before we can do anything of the sort. We just have these feelings that neither of us can act on. It's very unsettling. It's just that I took the time away because I needed some perspective. I expected to need to utilize the full amount of time to contemplate what I wanted."

"And her you are, you know how you feel and what you want and we haven't even been here a full day."

"We hadn't even gotten off of the plane yet." She gently corrected.

"Now, there's a full year ahead of you, without the man you love. Fate can be cruel."

"I don't believe in fate. Booth does, but if fate were real, we wouldn't have needed this year apart. I wouldn't have rejected him when he offered a romantic relationship to me on the proverbial silver platter."

Daisy had mind enough not to ask about that revelation either. _He asked her out, and she turned him down?_ She desperately wanted to ask, but the hurt that was already on her mentor's face was enough to deal with at the moment. She had no idea what to say or do for her. Then she got an idea.

"Write him a letter."

"What like an email? Why would I do that when I can call and hear his voice?"

"No not an email; I mean write him with a pen and paper. Old fashioned snail mail. Soldiers like to receive mail. It makes them feel like they are still a part of their life back home, and it gives them a tangible piece of their life to carry around with them. Ask him to write you the same way. It'll help."

"It sounds like you have experience with a soldier."

"Not in a romantic sense. My brother spent some time in Iraq. Just send him something physical he can hold onto. The familiarity of your handwriting will be of some comfort as well. I know you guys do a lot of paperwork together. It will mean more than you could possibly know for him to see it. Spray it with perfume or something that smells like you. It will be like gold to him. Hearing each other's voices is important, but _trust_ me, Doctor Brennan; you _need_ to do this."

"He's not even in Afghanistan, yet. I wouldn't know where to send it."

"Just write the letter. You can make calls to figure that out later."

She didn't mention that he had already sent her something that she already viewed as precious to her, regardless of the religious sentiments. It was precious to her and she hadn't even received it yet. So, yes, maybe the physical exchange of mail would be a wonderful supplement to their communication.

Daisy assured her that anytime she needed someone to listen; she would be there for her. She also promised to keep their words between them because she knew how guarded Brennan was regarding matters of the heart. She had heard Lance go on and on about the frustrating pair. He never revealed their personal matters regarding their therapy due to doctor/patient confidentiality laws, but he had discussed how frustratingly blind and oblivious the partners could be and joked that they probably did it on purpose to stress him out.

Brennan rinsed her bowl in the small washbasin and excused herself to her room after thanking Daisy for the suggestion and for being able to talk to her about it. She promptly retrieved a pad of paper, a pen, and the perfume she used on a daily basis back home. She didn't think she would need it here, but she brought it along just to be able to smell a little piece of her life from home. Now she was glad she thought to bring it even though there wouldn't be much occasion for its use here.

The second her pen hit the paper, the words flowed out fluently.

* * *

**XOXO,**

**CrayonClown**


	6. The Family Picture

It'd been five days after their arrival and people were scheduled to be there ready to work starting today, but there were complications in that plan. There had been a few that had backed out of the year-long deal and they'd had to find last-minute replacements for those people.

As a result, they now had some lesser-known and probably lesser skilled people working on the dig than had originally been planned. Since Brennan was in charge of everything, she was mad that she wasn't a part of the process of who decided to be there in the first place, and now, she was having to find replacements for those people who didn't stay on board as if the people who'd originally planned the project had just dropped it in her hands as if they didn't want to have anything further to do with it.

As some of those more prominent people backed out of the project, so did funding. She scrambled to find people willing to back the project to keep it going. She couldn't believe that it was barely a week in and they were already having so many problems. She now had a completely new appreciation for the fact that she wasn't picked for the administrator position over Cam at the Jeffersonian. She hated what she was doing, and her lack of personal skills made it harder.

She ended up placing a call to Paris asking Hodgins if he could get together a group of donors. He told her he would make a sizable donation and see what else he could do to get others on board. She'd even made donations herself. She hit up every major university she had connections with and was able to secure enough money to keep project in operation for a couple of months, but nowhere near the whole year, which meant her job wasn't over yet.

As people arrived on the island, she'd made sure that they all took the proper precautions by taking their malaria tablets and by showing them around the dig site, personally so they all knew where everything was. She'd briefed them on what was found and where so they knew what to expect and instructed them to do some light exploring on their own in order to acclimate themselves to the climate and the area in which they would be working. She gave them the first two full weeks to do so, so that the people who'd only just arrived would have a chance to do the same.

Another factor in her irritation at how everything was going was that she couldn't stop thinking of Booth. They were engaged. They weren't just together now. They'd promised each other a future. A forever future. While she was elated over the promise, she was eager to get started on the rest of their lives together. Only five days had passed. She knew from her satellite call from him yesterday, that he was probably just now getting settled in Afghanistan. He'd called her when he was getting ready to ship out of a base in Germany. He hadn't had time to call her before he left DC, but they made a stop in Germany for some equipment and fuel.

Several days later, and their first rounds of mail started arriving to the dig site. The package that Booth had sent her was among the first to arrive, along with two other envelopes, both with no return postage. She took them from the communications hut and set out for a peaceful spot she'd found while exploring. She walked the mile and a half to the valley where she'd found the most fragrant tree she'd ever smelled in her life. It smelled much like Booth. There was a big rock that she found herself sitting on at least once every day since finding the tree. It was remote and in the opposite direction of the dig site which meant that it was unlikely that she'd ever be disturbed there.

She set aside the two letters, figuring they could wait. They didn't seem important, or at least compared to the importance of the contents she knew were in the box they weren't. She opened the package as she sat on the rock. She felt nervous and shaky. She guessed that it was because the box contained the item that he'd told her could act as their symbol of engagement until he could get her a ring.

She fumbled with the box until it was open. She pulled an envelope and a smaller box from the beaten and battered outer shipping box. She ran her fingertips over the writing on the front of the envelope. Deciding to open that first she tore it open eagerly, nearly ripping the letter itself.

She took a deep breath of the Boothy tree and started reading.

_Bones,_

_I'm so glad that you called me before I sent this, because now I'm sending it with love for you not just care about your safety. I don't have much time right now, so this will just be a short note. I know we will talk more later when you call to tell me about your dream._

_I meant to give this to you the day you left, but I left it at my place and then didn't have enough time to go get it before going to see you off. It's a Saint Christopher medal. Before you ask, no, it isn't the one that Pops gave me before the Gulf War, but it is just like it, except daintier. I figured with both of us traveling we could both use the extra protection of the Patron Saint of Travelers. I know you don't believe in that stuff, but just humor me and wear the pretty necklace, Bones._

_By the time you receive this, I'll already be deployed. On the back of this paper is the address you should be able to send stuff to. It may take longer for your mail to reach me than for mine to reach yours, considering all the shit they do to protect the troops over there. So don't freak out when it takes a while to respond. Plus, I know that we'll have some communication over Skype when I get there. I'll make sure that is one of the first things I check on when I get there._

_I love you, Temperance.  
SGM Seeley J. Booth_

It was the neatest she had ever seen his writing. Usually on his paperwork, it was quickly written and sloppy barely discernable letters and shorthand symbols. She saw some of the same strokes, but it was clear that he'd taken his time, for her. She placed the precious letter back into the envelope and then ran her fingers along the edges of the small jewelry box that contained her necklace.

She opened the box, and her breath was taken away at the simple beauty of the pendant and necklace. They were a shiny gold. Her chain was more delicate than the chain he wore his on, and her pendant had more decorative notches and ridges around the outer edges of the medal making the shine and shimmer from the late afternoon sun give it a more feminine look than his medal had. He'd been right; it was a pretty necklace. But, it was more than just a necklace.

It was the symbolism for their engagement. He hadn't known that at the time of sending it, that it would turn out to be that way.

At the time he bought it, it was meant as a symbol between friends. He was telling her to be safe.

At the time he sent it, he sent it to his love, telling her to be safe.

Now, it was a symbol, keeping their future safe.

She removed it from the box and puller her hair to the side. She clasped it around her neck, and looked down at the shiny golden Saint, looking back up at her. The warmth she had in her heart, mind, and soul at the moment felt almost as good as when they were embraced in one of their guy hugs, which she now knew was so much more than just a hug between two friends.

She spent another hour out by the Boothy tree just breathing in the scent and reminiscing with her memories before grabbing the other two letters, her box, and a twig from the tree and heading back. Once back to the site, she set off for the comfort of the small flat where she could relax further.

.

Not long after Brennan had gotten out of the shower and donned herself in a tank top and shorts for the night, Daisy had come home ranting and raving about one of the people she'd been showing around. When the mail call had come earlier in that day, Brennan had been showing around a group that had just arrived. Brennan asked Daisy to take over in showing them around and helping them get set up.

From what Brennan could understand from the fast-paced flying rant spewing from Daisy's lips, it had not gone well. She caught bits and pieces of "man-whore", "trying to get into my pants" and "perverted, inbred freak from Alabama".

"…He pushed me up against a tree, got handsy with me, and spoke dirty and condescendingly to me with his straight-from-the-sticks accent. I am not available to be his play-toy, Doctor Brennan. I wish to have no future contact with that man."

"I'll see what I can do about that. I can make sure that he is put on a team that does not involve you, but at this point, we cannot lose any more people from this project. If it happens again, tell me, immediately, and appropriate action will be taken. I will keep a close eye on him, myself."

"And, you know, I know I'm hot, but that doesn't give him the right to think that entitles him to pursue me. Look," Daisy said holding up her left hand, "I even decided to keep my ring on. I know that there is a chance that my Lancelot and I won't be getting back together after this, but even after flashing my ring to him, he continued to—oh, Doctor Brennan! That is so beautiful. You weren't wearing this earlier today. I didn't even think you brought any jewelry with you."

The tank that Brennan was wearing was flattering to her figure, especially her chest. The v-neck showed ample cleavage and brought attention to the shiny golden pendant hanging from a delicate chain around her neck.

Brennan had just picked up the two envelopes from earlier that she hadn't opened yet, and was about to do so, when Daisy changed directions of the conversation. Brennan's eyebrows rose at the abrupt change. She set the envelopes down once again and she blushed at the mention of the necklace.

"Is that what came in the mail today?"

Brennan nodded with a goofy smile.

"It's from Agent Booth, isn't it?"

Brennan nodded again, picking up the twig that rested next to the unopened mail. She wafted it in front of her face to make the scent from the disturbed leaves drift into her nose to stimulate her olfactory senses.

"Aw, that is so sweet. What is it?"

"It's a Saint Christopher medal. Saint Christopher is the Patron Saint of Travelers. Booth sent it to me the day that we arrived here. He was going to give it to me at the airport, but he didn't have time to run home to get it. He has one just like it that belonged to his Pops. Hank gave it to Booth when he became a Ranger."

Brennan handed her the letter that accompanied it, since it wasn't too revealing and it didn't give away their engagement.

"Aw, Doctor Brennan, I'm so happy for you both to have finally found what others have seen between you two for a long time."

"I still don't understand how it seems that everyone knew before we did. Angela, Doctor Sweets, Cam, even my dad has hinted numerous times. Oh, and Caroline. And numerous people from crime scenes and suspects have asked us about…us. Really, _everyone_,knew before we did." Brennan laughed.

How had two people as sharp as Booth and herself completely missed what everyone else picked up on?

"That's not important. What's important is that you know _now_."

"I guess that's true, but we wasted so much time. We could have avoided this year apart if we hadn't been so blind, if _I_ hadn't been so blind that night."

"What's that?" Daisy gestured toward the twig.

"Oh, nothing. It just smells nice." She handed it to Daisy, who smelled it.

The scent was familiar to the younger woman. She'd been in close enough proximity to smell Agent Booth on a couple of occasions. She knew now why Doctor Brennan had been seen carrying a fresh twig around with her the past few days. It smelled like Booth. It was comforting to her to have around.

Daisy didn't say anything, choosing to let her friend think she had that secret to herself. She handed the twig back to her. She didn't want Doctor Brennan to get self-conscious about it and stop carrying around something that soothed her.

Daisy was quiet for a bit before asking Brennan if she was hungry. Daisy began making their dinner and Brennan picked the mail back up, this time noticing that one of the envelopes bared the same writing from the letter she'd received earlier.

_Booth_.

She quickly looked at the other envelope and noticed her name written in the handwriting of a child followed by the address written with the penmanship of the other letter.

_Parker_.

She quickly excused herself to her room. The abrupt departure confused Daisy, but she figured that maybe her mentor just needed some time to herself. She'd been open and honest with Daisy. More open and honest than she'd ever seen her with anyone other than Booth or Angela. Daisy didn't fault her for needing some time to herself.

Brennan ripped open the envelopes. She picked up Booth's letter first and began to read.

_Bones,_

_My love, I spent the day with Parker after you first called me from Maluku. (Hey, notice that I got the name right.) :) Anyway, you already knew this, since we had a video call with Parker and we told him about us, and then we got _ENGAGED_! (I must be the luckiest guy on the planet right now.) :) Well, right after that, I told Parker we should write letters to send to you so that you could have a piece of us there with you. He wouldn't let me read his or see the picture, so be forewarned to expect _anything_! He wanted me to make sure that you read his first, so if you're still reading this and you haven't read his yet, please stop and go read his._

Brennan smiled and followed the instructions. Grabbing Parker's envelope, she turned over onto her stomach and kicked her feet up in the air behind her. She took out the contents and unfolded the two pieces of paper. One was full of color, lines, and a few stick people. She glanced at it with a broad smile before reading.

_Hi Bones,_

_Dad suggested that we write a letter to you. I decided to draw a picture. He said you would like that. I don't know if you'll have a refrigerator to put it on over there. If not, that's okay. I know you'll put it somewhere that you can see it and think of me and dad. I drew me and you and my dad and some toys and some bones, cause that's what you work with, and some guns, because my dad likes guns, and there's some babies because I know you'll give me a baby brother some day. Mom says she's not having any more kids, which makes me sad, 'cause I know I'd make an awesome big brother. And I'm sad for dad, too, because he's the best dad ever. I know that you can find a way to make me a big brother and give me someone to share my great dad with. I can't wait to hear back from you if you aren't too busy digging in the dirt. I love you, Bones._

_Love,  
Parker Matthew Booth_

Brennan switched back to Booth's letter after giving Parker's picture another look. She knew Booth would have a heart attack if he'd known the content of Parker's letter or picture, but she cherished the thought very much.

_Okay, was it bad? What'd he say? You know, he can be quite colorful with words sometimes. Those kids he plays with, I swear. That time that he was asking all of the women in my life to be my girlfriend so they could "sex me up" was really funny looking back on it, but at the time, I think I just wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. If Angela hadn't been celibate during that time, I have no doubt she would have accepted his request to sex me up. I still can't believe he just wanted a pool!_

_Anyway, I know it seems ridiculous that I'm writing yet another letter after also talking with you twice, but I can't help it, and I wanted Parker to be able to send you something. It's important to me that you two stay in touch over this year. It's going to be hard on all of us, and it's important to remember that the three of us can help each other through it. Rebecca has promised to help him mail letters to both of us. _

_Let me take this opportunity to tell you how much I love you. I love your heart and soul. I love your eyes, and yeah, that's superficial, but those eyes tell me so much about your mood. They tell me whether you're trying to make jokes (which you have gotten better at, by the way), and they tell me if something has hurt you (even when you won't tell me, yourself), and they tell me when something I've done is amusing, they tell me when you're in a snarky mood, they tell me when I better leave well enough alone, and today, I realized that they've been telling me that you love me for a long time. I just hadn't noticed it until you told me with words. You are one of the hardest people to read, Temperance Brennan, and I love the challenge that faces me in trying to do so. I love your laugh. I love your smile. I love the way you find ways to turn everything into a debate. _

_I'm really going to miss the back and forth we have in the SUV. You know I'm stuck with a rental right now? Bye-bye sirens and lights. Parker was disappointed that I picked him up in a "granny car". It's weird driving a small car. I'm not used to having to dodge bigger vehicles. Do I drive like them jerks in the big trucks that push small cars out of the way? Please tell me I'm not that bad. Oh, well. At least it's only for a couple more days, then it's hello Humvees and other combat vehicles. _

_Anyway, I know this letter is short, but I need to get Parker back to his mom. I'm telling him goodbye tonight. I don't think I'll see him again before they ship me out. The next time you hear from me will probably be right before I leave the District. I'll try to make time to call. We both love you, Bones. So much. I can't wait until we can be together, my love._

_Love your fiancé, (I still can't believe you said yes!)  
The very lucky SGM Seeley J. Booth_

Brennan got out the letter she'd started writing to Booth after finding that she needed a moment to process everything he'd said he loved about her. She hadn't finished it because she didn't know where to send it anyway. She took out a new sheet of paper, deciding to start over. She began writing, keeping some aspects of her old letter, but adding new questions or comments in response to the letters and necklace she'd received.

* * *

**Please let me know what you think so that I know that there is still interest in this one. **

**XOXO,  
CrayonClown  
**


	7. Healing Heartache

**Enjoy.  
**

* * *

"Sarge, what can I do for ya?" Private Timothy James asked saluting his superior as Booth walked into the communication tent.

"At ease. Have they lifted the blackout yet?"

"No, sir."

"Damn it."

"I don't want to be nosy, but you've come in here every day for the last five weeks to see if the computers are online. Is something wrong, sir? Missing someone special?"

"Yeah, but I'm fine. I just would like to have a video chat with my fiancé every once in a while, but I guess that's just too much to ask, even after being promised that we had that capability at this camp. The satellite phones can't even hold a call for longer than thirty seconds."

"I'll be sure to let you know when the area blackout is lifted, but it probably won't be until General Myers' operation is completed. My bunkmate says that it could take another two months. You could send snail mail."

"Two months? That is unacceptable," Booth pounded his fist against the side of a large shelf. He took a breath and reminded himself to not get mad at the poor kid; it wasn't his fault. "We are writing letters to each other, but Temperance… she's on some remote island in Indonesia and with the Army's screening and security processes that the mail goes through, it will take weeks to hear from each other. I sent her a letter before I left the states and here it is nearly six weeks later and I haven't heard anything back from her, yet. And I can't call her, send an email, or video chat with her. I don't want her to think that something has happened to me or that I'm ignoring her."

Several thoughts flitted through his mind. He wondered what Bones was thinking about why he hadn't communicated with her; especially after everything they had revealed to each other that first week she was gone. He really hoped that she didn't think that he was backing out. He decided that even if he didn't receive a letter soon, he would write one today just to let her know about the communication problems and let her know that he was safe. Convincing her that he was safe would be a much easier task than consoling her or reassuring her if she thought that he was not as committed to them as she had thought. He needed to send a letter today, no matter what.

"I'm sure it'll be soon, Sarge."

"So, do you mind if I sit in here and play Spider Solitaire for a while?" Booth asked.

"Hey, it's the only thing those computers are good for right now. Might as well."

After numbing his mind with the pointless computer games for almost an hour, Booth got restless and decided that a workout would do him some good. It was getting dark and it was just about time for the mess hall open.

After the workout, he went to go grab something to eat before heading to his tent that he shared with a couple of other higher ranking individuals. On his way back to the tent he was stopped by Private James.

"Sarge! Wait up!" He approached Booth at a run and saluted him after his approach.

"At ease, James. Did you need something?"

"Uh yeah, the mail came in after you left the com tent earlier. You got a letter, sir." He handed it over to Booth.

The lightened and cheery expression on Booth's face showed his relief of finally receiving a letter from Bones. "Thanks; is that all?"

"Yes, sir. Have a good night."

"You, too. Get some rest. Be ready for drills in the morning, James. It's gonna be a doozy of a day. Stay hydrated."

"Yes, sir."

Booth hurried back to his tent and hoped that he would be alone for a few moments to read the letter, but when he got there, his bunkmates were already back from dinner joking around with each other. Booth dropped in just long enough to grab some paper, a pen and a clipboard.

He walked out of his tent and into the darkness to find a place where he could be alone. Unfortunately, he couldn't wander too far beyond a certain point without putting himself in danger, so he walked behind the big tent they used for the mess hall and found a place to sit up against the side.

He sat down and took his hat off, sitting it beside him with his water container. It was dark outside, so he fished a flashlight out of the cargo pocket on his pant leg. He opened the letter and what looked like part of a twig fell out.

_What the hell?_ Booth thought. _Why is she sending me this?_

He set it aside on top of his hat.

He unfolded the letter and took a moment to observe her neatly flowing cursive before starting to read it.

He began to read.

_Seeley,_

_First things first. Please take note of the date of this letter and find out how long it took this letter to reach you from here. That should also give you the approximate time that it took your letter to reach me from the states, but I imagine it wouldn't be too much of a difference if it had come from wherever you currently are._

Booth looked at the date. Nearly three weeks. It had taken nearly three weeks for her letter to reach him. The remaining time meant that it took three weeks for his letter to reach her. There was no way they could live on communication that sparse between them. Not without being completely consumed and driven insane with worry and fears. Even if he wrote a letter tonight and sent it in the morning, it would take the better part of a month to reach her. He didn't know if he could live with the thought of her sitting around digging in dirt waiting for word from him to confirm his wellbeing and willingness to go on with what they had barely started.

There had to be something he could do, but for now, he was going to finish her letter.

_I received the letters you and Parker sent me. Parker's letter was really touching, and I loved the picture he drew for me and the explanation of what everything was in the picture. I'm going to respect his privacy, though. Just know that it's wonderful._

_Also, I received the St. Christopher medal as well. I'm very excited to wear it. I love it, and what it represents for us. I appreciate that it can be tucked safely away around my neck anywhere I go. If I had an actual ring, I wouldn't be able to wear it for the majority of the time I will spend here. _

_I must tell you that Daisy knows about the change in our relationship. I didn't tell her about the engagement. It felt good to have someone right here to talk about this with, and before you go and make jokes about her annoyance factor, just know that she's been surprisingly docile since being here. She is a good listener and has good insight. She still gets under my skin from time to time, but really, it has been great to have her around. I think that it helps that she doesn't know where she stands with Dr. Sweets. Sometimes she seems so depressed, but the way she still talks about him… Booth, I hope things work out for them in the end._

_It's been a trying few weeks. We've had to replace a few people who have backed out and we're still giving people time to adjust to the layout of the area as well as the climate before we get down to heavy work at the dig site. There are a select few that have been here for a while that are already down there working, but to send people who aren't used to this area's heat and humidity out to dig for hours would be comparable to mass homicide. At least where you are, you don't have the humidity to contend with. If there is anything to be thankful for, be thankful for that. Anyway, all of that to say, we haven't accomplished much here yet. Soon though. I'm about ready to let the first wave of people out to the cliffs and caves where the remains were discovered. We are going to excavate them and analyze them before we continue with any other part of the area. We want to leave as little of a human foot print here as possible. It is likely that we will abort the dig if it turns out that these remains aren't as significant as the claim was. _

_Booth this place is gorgeous. Almost like a vacation destination in places. I won't go into too much detail as I do realize that it may be a little insensitive to where you are currently stationed to describe such a paradise. But there is one thing I must tell you about. You are probably wondering about the twig that was in your envelope. Do me a favor and smell it. I know that's a silly request, but just do it._

Booth picked the twig back up and brought it to his nose. Amazing! The twig had spent three weeks in the mail and the aroma was still very strong. He took in the scent and couldn't believe it. He knew that smell. He pinched his clothing between his fingers from his chest and brought it up to his nose to smell. A gross combination of sweat and sand. Nothing like he usually smelled. He smelled the twig again. It was odd how something so ordinary such as a scent from a mere twig could be comforting. It was another piece of home that he hadn't been able to bring with him.

_Did you smell it? It smells like you. So even though you aren't here, all I have to do is go to sit near this tree that I found. It's a little bit away from everything, and it's comforting to be surrounded by your scent. Yet, sometimes I fear the false sense of security that it lends. You are in a dangerous place, and sometimes sitting under that tree, I forget that. I have no idea what kind of tree it actually is; I would have to have Hodgins tell me. I have gone out there a few times now, and when I leave, I always bring a twig back with me so that I can smell it when I need to. It helps ease the pain of missing you. Please tell me that I won't always be this sentimental and irrational._

_I hope you're getting settled in there, as much as you can anyway. What do they have you sleeping on? If you experience any discomfort, you need to let them know about your back. I'm still not entirely sure why they wanted you back with your back problems and the fact that you had a brain tumor in your recent history._

Nice, Bones. Booth thought to himself. He kept reading, sometimes having to back track and reread her words.

_I've decided that the best way to do these letters would be for us to write them in a journal style rather than conversational. Given the likely very lengthy time gaps between letters, I propose that we write each other every day. It can be anything. How your day went. Thoughts. Feelings. Likes or dislikes. Jokes. Or whatever. Think of it as a diary of your day that you want me to read. Then once we both have adequate access to more modern methods of communication we can be more conversational._

"I guess Bones really has thought of everything," Booth said to himself.

_So you know a little bit about my time here and you have a twig from my favorite Boothy tree. Is there anything you can send me so that I can have an idea of your setting there in Afghanistan? I know circumstances are different and that you cannot even allow me to know exactly where you are, but even if you just send me a baggie of sand. I want something that I can hold onto. It's terribly sentimental and irrational, I know. But I cannot make my mind stop thinking of where you are and how dangerous it is there. Is there at least anything that you've found comfort in there? _

_I cannot really think of much else to say here in this letter. Tomorrow will bring a new day and new experiences. Hopefully they will be worthy enough to write about. _

_Don't worry about the amount of time it will take for me to receive your response to this letter. I know that it will be awhile. Hopefully, we get to find other methods of communication before then. I've become quite accustomed to having you around and hearing your voice. Soon, Booth. Soon._

_With more love than I ever could have imagined myself capable,_

_Temperance XOXO_

Booth knew he had to get started on a letter after this. She said don't worry about the amount of time, but he knows Temperance Brennan. She would worry. She would think the worst, and if he wasn't prompt about finding some way to communicate with her very soon, he knew she'd leave whatever island she was on and pull strings to fly to Afghanistan to come find him to ensure his safety.

He quickly and sloppily scrawled out a letter on the paper he had brought with him. He wrote about his day and told her about the amount of time it took for the letters to arrive. He talked about his time since he'd arrived and he described everything around him. He assured her that, despite his apparent recent handicaps, his bedding was sufficient. He told her that he had found a little bit of good there even through all of the bad.

The town nearby was a neutral area. Booth had only been a few times because even though it was a safe zone, he knew that anything could change and things could happen. He'd interacted with some of the children there and played ball with them. He remained alert when he was there. It was no secret that insurgents would use children as bait, but he'd been fairly certain that it was not the case here. The town had been known for having its fair share of Kamikazes, but had overall shown an interest in receiving help.

He also explained the reasons he had not yet been in contact with her and praised her idea of writing in a journalistic manner.

He also told her that he'd been given two weeks leave in December and that he wanted to spend his time off with her on the islands. He had thought long and hard about what he wanted to do with his leave. In his mind, he had three viable options. He could go home and see Parker one week and then go see Bones the next week. Or he could spend his entire two weeks in one place or the other. He knew he still had time to think this one over, but he was leaning heavily towards spending both weeks with his Bones. He would be able to video chat with his son on a regular basis there and he could make up for some wasted time with his new fiancé. He pretty much ruled the first option out, right away, given the amount of wasted time there would be with travel from Afghanistan to the States, then from there to Maluku, and then from there back to Afghanistan. Another reason he was hesitant on the other options was that Rebecca had never let him have Parker for a full week before. He wasn't so sure that these circumstances would do much to change that. So he knew he couldn't risk going to the States for the full two weeks, knowing that it was unlikely that he'd have full access to his son.

Booth looked down at his watch and noticed that he'd been out behind the mess hall for almost three hours. He had no idea that he'd gotten so carried away writing. He was certain his bunkmates would think he'd been abducted if he didn't get back soon. He already had a reputation for having a straight-laced routine, and if he broke it, they would think the worst. He finished up the letter with his oozing charm and affection for her that still came out just as effective through written words as it did in person.

He still needed to figure out what he was going to send her so that she could have a little piece of this place, but he knew he sure as hell was not going to send her sand in damn baggie.

.

Almost a month went by before Brennan received the letter he'd sent. She'd been worried that something had happened, but she knew that she would be notified in anything did happen.

Even thought they were parting ways, they had both made sure they were each other's emergency contacts. They had already been each other's medical proxies for several years now, but they both went to extra lengths to make sure that the Army knew that she was the first to be contacted in the event that something happened.

She also knew from her travels throughout the world that international mail could be a real headache to wait on. She'd had no previous experience with mail going through the Army processes of delivery, but Daisy had made sure to remind her, incessantly, that it takes several weeks and that she should do something to take her mind off of waiting for a response or a call.

When she received her correspondence one day, she actually received a bundle of four letters from him plus a small box, telling her that they apparently do not run mail out of the base every day. To tide her over until the next round of letters she read one letter per day until she ran out and had to wait for more.

The first one was a response to her letter and the others after that, an account of his days. Booth hadn't found anything from there that he'd wanted to send her, so he boxed up two of his t-shirts and sent them to her so that she wouldn't have to rely on smelling a tree to smell him.

She noticed that these letters were not as pristine and neatly written as the first two had been. This gave her some indication that he'd been in a hurry and that he was staying busy. It was likely that he'd written them on the fly between training sessions or at a meal time. One of them had distinct coffee splatters and grape jelly fingerprints.

She continued to write to him about her days and started to sleep in the shirt with big bold "FBI" written across the front. The other, the one with "ARMY" stamped across the back, she kept tucked away where his scent could stay fresh on it.

The night after reading his fourth letter, she cried herself to sleep. She'd read his words and possessed something from him, but she hadn't had their easy interaction and she missed it terribly. She miss his smile that always came so easily around her. She missed _him_. In the letter she'd wrote to him that night, she wrote some of her fears of growing apart and knowing that things weren't the same between them. It was supposed to be _better_ now that they were together, but it wasn't. It couldn't be. Not when they were so far apart. The distance and lack of contact was really starting to get to her.

In a way, she had been doing better before she'd started receiving his letters. She was always successfully finding something to take her mind off of the fact that she hadn't heard from Booth. Now, each day she went the whole day anticipating reading his words. The thought of this simple joy consumed her thoughts the majority of the time.

On top of being constantly distracted, the dig was proving to not be what they had hoped. She knew this was good for her because there was a chance that they could send all of the big names home. Even though she was head of the project, they would easily be able to replace her with someone who would be happy to stay on board with the project, even if they didn't find anything of scientific importance. If they didn't find anything within a certain timeframe, it had been decided that they would shut the project down altogether.

.

No one could have known that the missions that kept communications at a minimum on base would operate all the way through November causing their first modern contact to occur two weeks before Booth's scheduled time off. Even then, it had been very brief.

.

"Doctor Brennan!" Daisy came running out of the communications tent. It was meal time and Brennan was just sitting down to eat. "DOCTOR BRENNAN!"

Daisy's shrill yell cut through the noisy crowd and everyone got silent as they observed the bouncy girl run to the project head.

"Is all of the yelling necessary? You're making a scene! It's highly unprofessional, and unless something has been disc—"

"It's Booth!"

Brennan went pale at the mention of her fiancé's name. She'd heard his name and automatically assumed the worst. She hadn't even realized that if something bad had happened, Daisy would not be likely to be bouncing around with excitement.

Seeing that Brennan seemed to be distressed, Daisy quickly continued with the reason she'd run over there. "Video call," she said out of breath. "He's—"

Daisy cut herself off when she'd noticed that her mentor was no longer sitting at the table and had already started running toward communications.

It wasn't rational because she wasn't within a distance that he could hear her, but she'd started yelling his name before she'd even entered the hut.

She whipped back the flimsy door to the semi-permanent structure, housing the communications lab.

She hollered his name one more time before she'd heard his enthusiastic reply with his nickname for her.

"_Bones!"_

She came into view and nearly missed the chair as she tried to sit in front of the computer. She let out a curse as she righted herself and looked up with tears streaming down her face.

"_Aw, Bones. Don't cry. I'm here, Baby. I'm here. Talk to me, Love."_

"Bo—Booth," she finally managed to get out of a shaky sob. "I—I'm shaking." She told him, unnecessarily. He could see that she was.

He waited patiently for her to calm down. _"Breathe, okay, Bones."_ Finally, after many soft words, she calmed down a little enough for her to listen to him. _"I need you to listen. I don't have much time before they kick me off of here to give some other love-sick schmuck a chance to use this thing. I'm sorry that it took me so long to have access to communication here."_ The audio and video feed cut out for a second and then came back on after thunder was heard from a little ways away.

Brennan's eyes went wide at the loss and she shook her head with a full on pained expression on her face.

Booth saw Brennan's panic as his connection stayed strong, _"Are you still there? Can you still hear me?"_

She nodded, "Yes. There are storms coming here, Booth and I'm afraid we'll lose our connection before I'm ready."

"_Okay, let me say this first, in case we get cut off. I don't want to end this conversation without having said it. I love you, Bones."_ Booth's eyes were tired and soft and she couldn't quite tell for sure, but she was positive she thought she saw them glisten with moisture. _"God, I miss you so much!"_

"I miss you and love you, too. Words cannot express how I feel at this moment. Booth the grainy images do not do your beautiful face justice."

"_Handsome. Men are handsome, not beautiful. Your feed is grainy on this end as well, but still one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen."_

She gave him a watery resilient smile. "Have you decided how you're going to spend your time off?"

"_It's one of the reasons I'm calling. I am going to spend both weeks there, with you. I know you have to work and play boss around there for most of the time that I'll be there, but it'll be better than splitting my time between there and the States, especially since I won't know for sure that Rebecca will let me have Parker for longer than a couple of days while I'm there. She's been good lately, but after not having to share him she'll be stingy and reluctant to give him up for a bit. And, you seem to have better access to communication than I do here. I can use some of my free time to catch up on some things. Communicate with the outside world and all that other fun stuff."_

"Okay; that sounds fine. Our week off here coincides with one of your weeks, so that's good. My job here isn't as heavy with work as on digs I've been to in the past. I mostly just supervise that everything is being handled properly and that people maintain a certain moral and work ethic, which can be difficult in such close quarters and tight spaces after a long period of time. So, have you got transportation all arranged?"

"_Yep. I have a question for you, though."_

"Okay."

Booth leaned in closer to the camera, looking into the lens with a sultry smirk. _"You're living with Daisy right now, but do you think she would mind bumming it while I'm there?"_

"Bumming it?" She thought for a second as some loud thunder rumbled outside. "Oh, you mean, you want her to stay with someone else so that we can—"

"_Yeah!"_ Booth said brightly, cutting her off. _"Bones, you should know that my end of this conversation is monitored, so let's refrain from getting into too much detail, okay?"_ Booth looked behind him toward someone who just appeared into the background behind him. She couldn't quite hear what was said. He turned back around with a frown. _"Bones, I've only got a few more minutes."_

"I miss conversing with you."

"_I miss it too, Bones, but the letters help. It was a good idea to write whether it was conversational or not. I've always loved reading what you write."_

"Booth, reading my books and reading my letters is bound to be very different."

"_Not as much as you might think. Your books are very detail oriented. Well, so were the letters. It's been like reading the most detail oriented diary ever kept. Ever. It's been like reading a detailed script of things going through your mind or events that happened that day. Some of it I could picture happening. I've always marveled at your thought processes and through the letters, I feel like I've finally gotten a glimpse at how you think."_

"Your penmanship can use a little work," Brennan said, self-consciously trying to steer the conversation away from her own letters, "but yes, reading something from your hand and your mind is very cathartic for me as well. Your thought processes have always impressed me, from an anthropological standpoint. Although, the lack of the use of reason and logic have always baffled me. It was nice to have had the connection to you as I read your many idioms and references to things that I didn't completely understand. Somehow the confusion was familiar and reassuring."

"_Okay, so I think we can both agree to keep the letters going. We've been told that communications will be going back down here, shortly, which is why I have a time limit so that others can use this thing. I will not have another opportunity to talk to you until I get to the islands." _Booth took note of her face scrunching up as she fought back tears. _"Don't fight it, Bones. Let it out. I know, Baby, it's hard. It's only twelve more days. Twelve days until I get to be with you, okay? Take a deep breath. Talk to Daisy. Let her help, but don't forget to kick her out before I get there."_

Brennan smiled and laughed a little at his desperate tone, and responded with one of her own, "Trust me, it is very unlikely that I'll forget to do that. I'll be waiting for you."

"_I know. Just do your job, talk to Daisy, and go out to my tree. I'll be there before you know it."_ There was a mummer of a voice in the background and Booth nodded his head in acknowledgment_. "My time is up, Bones. I love you."_

"I love you, too. Be safe."

"_Always. You too! I don't want to hear any tales of you Indiana Jones-ing when I get there."_

"I know who that is!" She said as her face got bright at the recognition and received the message of what he was telling her.

"_Good. Don't worry about me, okay?"_

"That's like me telling you not to worry about me, Booth. It'll never happen."

Booth took a deep breath with a sad smile, _"Goodbye, Bones. I love you."_

"I love you, too. Goodbye."

They stared at each other for a few more moments before the connection was severed. Both had clicked the link to close the program, but it was not known by either of them who had done it first.

Brennan stared at the blank screen where his face had been seen. He'd been dark. Really dark. Part of it was the increased melanin in his skin cells from the increased and prolonged exposure to direct sunlight. Part of it was from the streaks of dirt or sand on his face that had blown up and stuck to his sweaty skin earlier in the day. She knew that look well; she looked very much similar at the end of her days as she unwound for bed.

She was brought out of her thoughts as the Maluku Project's themed screen saver came up in front of her face. She stood and headed outside. She was surprised to see Daisy sitting on a bench near the tent opening. It seemed like she was waiting for Brennan to come out.

Daisy stood and smiled at her mentor. "Before I went to go get you, Agent Booth asked me to wait around out here until you'd finished your call. He said you might ne—"

Brennan crushed herself into Daisy, tears coming hard once more. And Daisy continued what she was saying. "He said you might need a hug afterward." She wrapped her arms tighter around Brennan. "I'm here for you. If you want, we can go back to our place and you can finish eating there, and if you feel like it we can talk later. Okay?"

Brennan nodded and allowed Daisy, her _friend_, instead of Daisy, her student, lead her away as the skies opened up around them, drenching the terrain.

* * *

**I've currently got _four_! fics in progress and I was thinking that I need to wrap this one up soon. Next chapter will be Booth's two week time off, then the following chapters would be the probably sparse communication between them and then make it to the reunion in chapter 10 and call it good. An epilogue would be very likely as well.**

**Thoughts?**

**XOXO,**  
**CrayonClown**


	8. Show Me

**I want you to disregard what I said about the remaining time line of this story. There is no way I can finish it with a fully satisfactory ending by chapter 10. It would be entirely too rushed, and I have no idea what I was smoking the day I came up with that plan. So, new plan. There is no set number of chapters. We'll spend some time on Booth's two weeks in Indonesia, the re-separation, and some other things before the reunion. **

**This one does make use of the M rating a little bit, but not completely as this fic isn't about the smut. There will be some in the coming chapters, but it will not be a focal point.**

* * *

As expected the only contact they'd had since their brief interaction by video chat was through the daily correspondence they sent each other that came in bursts of letters rather than arriving daily due to their remote locations and the difficulties getting mail brought in.

As Booth sat on the bare plane getting jerked around during the flight, he played through his mind several scenarios of what they would do when they were finally together, most of them inappropriate for public meetings, as was very likely. He didn't want to undermine her status there.

Booth prayed to God that she'd gotten Daisy to go stay with someone else during their time there. He knew that it would probably be a downgrade for her, but he really wanted his alone time with Bones.

Brennan had described the living quarters to him in one of her first letters. He'd seen it briefly on their few video calls before he went to Afghanistan, but he'd mostly just seen her room. He'd had no idea until she told him that she had a small apartment. He figured they would all be living in tents or caves out there in the jungle. She'd explained that most everybody was, but part of the appeal of being the boss is getting special treatment and incentives such as not having to stay in a tent.

He knew from experience back in the day and now just how frustrating tent life could be. Electricity, water, basic plumbing, air conditioning, privacy… all things taken for granted until they are not available. He was definitely thankful for her high position, and the very thought almost made him feel like he was using her for her commodities until he thought about how long they've both waiting for this moment where their lives would collide.

His stomach lurched as the plane hit a particularly rough patch of air, tossing him and the aircraft around like a toy.

.

As she lay in her bed the morning that Booth was supposed to arrive, she wondered if he actually would. There had been no further live communication to confirm his arrival. It had been two excruciating weeks since their talk, and anything could have happened between that time and right now. Plans change, plans go wrong, accidents happen, and Booth was not in total control of everything happening to him over there. He had commanding officers. Sure, he held the title Sergeant Major, but what if he'd been asked to stay for some reason beyond his control? What if he couldn't make it as he said he would? What if there had been an accident of some kind that would take him away from her.

She had to get away from her thoughts.

She hadn't been to sleep the night before from anticipation of his arrival and anxiety that he wouldn't show up. She jumped out of bed almost a full hour earlier than her normal time. She got dressed and headed out of the door. She traveled down to the dig site where she knew that some of her people were working, out along the edges of the caves where sunlight would hit strongly in a few hours.

They'd discovered early on that it would be best to approach this dig with people working around the clock. People would excavate the areas outside of the caves during the night when it is cooler and during the extreme heat and humidity of the day, they would work inside the caverns where the initial remains had been found.

She quietly observed their work from a slight distance before approaching the one she leaves in charge of the nighttime excavation for a progress report on their night's work.

She found herself unable to focus on the words, but figured the report was probably no different than it always seemed to be anyways. She nodded in all the right places before hauling off to her Boothy tree. She didn't stick around and let her mind wander. She grabbed a twig, taking a deep breath of the scent and then high-tailed it to make an appearance at her usual time to get some breakfast.

She sat down and tried to trick herself into being interested in the food. She wasn't; she couldn't even pretend. She forced herself to eat anyway, knowing that she'd need her energy considering she didn't sleep. Booth, if he were to show up, would chastise her for not eating. He could always tell. It was easier for her to mask her tiredness from him than her hunger. It had always been like that. She figured several months of separation wouldn't change that fact. Booth would still be Booth.

As she was nearing the end of her meal a sound rocked through the campsite. It startled everyone as the deep booming sound rolled off into a rumble. Brennan quickly gathered her things and threw away her trash and headed outside, only to notice in the growing light of the day what she hadn't noticed in the darkness of the early morning. Storm clouds.

She found herself praying to Booth's God and every other deity that she'd ever come across in her life that this wouldn't impede Booth journey, should he be able to travel here as he'd said.

.

Upon the rough landing, Booth was directed to his next phase of travel, a smaller plane. But just before takeoff, the pilot powered down the engine and said that he just gotten word of a storm, and that they had to wait out the storm. He assured Booth that it was just a small storm and that they would be cleared for the flight in probably half an hour.

During this time, the pilot and Booth departed the small aircraft to stretch out their legs a bit before folding their tall frames back up into the plane for the hour long flight.

Once they were given the all clear, Booth and the pilot re-boarded the plane and prepared for takeoff.

.

First the rain, now _this!_ Brennan was beyond livid. She may not have been cognizant enough in her musing of Booth's probable arrival to have noticed the storm before it hit, but her team… they had a team of weather analysts on this island for a reason! The whole point of having a team of people monitoring the unpredictable island weather was so that the remains could be preserved as much as possible. They needed time to prepare preservation efforts on the outside dig site. Someone didn't get them the warning fast enough and now the integrity and data of their findings would be compromised.

No, they weren't trying to solve a murder and, no, the rain didn't wash away crucial evidence to be used in a trial, but every time the remains were exposed to the elements, a little bit of the history and the story was washed away. A little bit of the entomological data was ruined. They were taken further and further from the truth when errors like these were made, as if several hundred years wasn't far enough.

Brennan didn't know who was at more fault. The weather analysts or the team members standing outside as the early morning sunlight broke the horizon when the storm blew in. Surely, the analysts should have picked up on some sort of pattern that indicated that a storm was about to drop on them. And certainly, the scientists standing out in the weather as it formed around them hadn't been so oblivious that they didn't notice the weather brewing around them.

While most of the remains had been properly covered in time, there was a section that had been contaminated with the rainwater. Now it would be nearly impossible to get proper samples of the composition in that area due to the rainwater.

Brennan was on damage control this morning and decided that a meeting was in order both to reprimand and find a solution for what happened. Everyone, both the outside night crew and cave day crew, had been present during the incident. It had occurred right during their shift change and progress reports. Even with the extra hands, the cover up had not been quick enough, but still everyone was thankful for the fact that it could have taken even longer had it occurred either five minutes before or after the time that it had.

Also present, was every single member of the weather crew.

Brennan stood silent before them as she fumed. There was no way that she was in the mindset to handle this right now. Not while she was so pissed off that she couldn't see straight, and definitely not while her mind kept wandering to whether or not Booth would make it.

She'd pulled aside Daisy, as the head of the day crew, to have her stand up there with her during the meeting. Daisy was aware of the fact that Booth would be showing up today and that Brennan was mostly thinking of only his arrival. Brennan asked her to stand up there because she wasn't honestly sure she would be able to finish everything that needed to be said. To make it seem fair, she'd also asked the head of the night crew to stand at the front as well. They would talk to their crews and work out exactly what had happened so that a report could be filed and also so they could discuss a game plan in case of another slip.

But first…

"Do you have _any _idea how much money is invested in this dig… on the findings of _this_ dig?" There was a large pause as if she wanted them to really think the questions through. "If the major investors catch wind of this… then this dig is as good as over. They do not like to pay a fortune to a cause only that have mistakes occur. We're here to find the missing link, true, but we have _yet_ to find anything of the like. In the meantime, as scientists, the _only_ thing we can do for ourselves and for our investors, until then, is analyze what we _do_ have. We have a duty to give them _something_. And when _that_ is compromised… we have _nothing_. I would advise every one of you to thank whatever mythical deity you pray to at night that this wasn't worse."

There was a large pause as Brennan's jaw ticked. And then a long heavy sigh, before she let them in on something that she wasn't sure she wanted to share, but felt that perhaps if they knew, then there would be more care taken as they approached the rest of this dig.

"It's almost been seven months that we've been working here." Another large pause. "They are restless with this dig. We've uncovered nothing of major value. What was originally thought to be a groundbreaking find has turned out to be nothing more than ordinary. Investors are bored with this dig. It has turned up little into the insight of early hominids. They are ready to move their funding elsewhere. I know that we cannot change what is or is not here, but we can try to keep this dig going for researches purposes for as long as possible, but the only way to do that is to keep everything on our end… flawless."

She gazes passed the group of people, and behind them stood Booth, waiting patiently as she talked. She wanted so badly to just leave without a word and let Daisy and the others handle this, but she was the boss and had to get through this first. He smiles broadly as he catches her eye after standing there awhile. He'd been there for nearly the whole rant, and he didn't have the gumption to stop her as he'd missed her grand presence and bossy attitude. There was no way he was going to stop that. Sure, he wanted to sweep her off her feet and kiss the ever-living daylights out of her, but he knew that she wouldn't appreciate that in this particular setting. So, he settled for watching her do what she does best.

Intimidate the crap out of her workers to pull the best possible work from them.

"Miss Wick, could you please explain to the day crew how we are going to proceed with today's work. I believe it would be best to uncover the remains and let them aerate for the day and then resume work with in the morning when the moisture has had time to vaporize. I want you to oversee the operations, but Doctor Meadows will go over the proper technique for uncovering the remains without causing further disruption to the remains. Then I want the day crew to continue with their normal work in the caves. Get to work."

She'd somehow managed to keep her composure knowing that Booth was standing behind everyone. Her voice stayed strong and focused and she was able to get through her plan of action before turning to do the same once more with the night crew and weather team.

She turned to the head of the night crew and filled her in with the instructions that they were to go home and get some rest but they had the night off to let the remains dry, but she wanted them get together tonight with some of the weather analysts on the same shift to come up with a game plan of how to handle certain scenarios should they arise and then report back to her in the morning to discuss them.

As she ended her brief instructions to those she trusted to handle the jobs she ran to Booth, leaving everyone, except Daisy, bewildered in her wake. When he saw the energy and emotion she put into moving toward him, as if she simply couldn't wait another second to be in his arms, he no longer had any qualms about sweeping her off her feet.

When she reached him she landed hard into his chest, nearly knocking the wind out of the both of them. His arms immediately came around her and pulled her tighter to him.

It took everyone a moment to realize what was occurring there as they finally took in his uniformed appearance. Upon realization of the happy reunion, the crews all went their separate ways to carry out their assigned tasks and to give them some privacy.

Booth quickly realized that her shoulders were shaking.

"Bones, don't cry. I'm here. There's no—"

"I'm—I'm not crying."

"…You're laughing?"

He pulled away to look at her to see the corners of her mouth pulled up on both sides as her lips bared a beautiful smile that flashed her bright white teeth and shining eyes at him.

"What's so funny? What? Is my hair messed up or something? 'Cause I gotta tell ya, that was a Hell of a plane ride."

"No, I… I had myself convinced that you weren't really coming or that something would happen and you wouldn't make it. I find myself very happy that you're here and that didn't happen."

"Nothing could have stopped me from coming, Bones."

"Yes, there are variables, very realistic variables that—"

Booth placed his finger on her lips, "…Variables that we aren't going to think about right now. We aren't going to spend our time together worrying about what might have happened or what could still happen. That's not why I'm here."

"Oh, so why are you here?"

"Because I told my fiancé that I would be here. Have you seen her? She's got light brown hair, almost auburn; bright light blue eyes or greenish if she's really pissed off; smart, really smart… smartest woman alive; and she's about five-nine in English, and I have no idea how to convert that to squint, but maybe you know who I'm talking about anyway?"

"Oh, yeah. I know her. C'mon. I know where she is staying. I'll take you there."

He grabbed his bags off of the ground and she looped her arm in his.

"Lead the way."

"I thought Rangers lead the way, Sergeant Major Seeley Booth." Brennan said coyly.

"Not today, Bones. Right now, I'm just a guy on vacation with his girl."

"Well, technically, your girl isn't on vacation, yet. I still have a couple more days until our scheduled time off for the holidays."

"It looked to me as if everyone just had their asses handed to them back there. They have plenty to do. I don't think they will need their boss for a while."

"Let's hope not, but if they do, Daisy knows where to find me. Let's go."

.

"Wow, this place is tiny, Bones."

"Yes it is, but at least as the project head, I've been given the opportunity to not have to live in a tent for a year. And it is nice to have access to basic commodities as well. So while we had to walk quite a distance to get here, it is well worth it. And as you requested Daisy will be staying with some girls from her crew."

"Her crew?"

"Yes, Daisy has stepped up quite a bit since being here, both personally and professionally. She earned the position as head of the day crew that works on the remains in the caves. We've got two crews and two such positions and considering the amount of people we have, that's quite an accomplishment for her at this stage in her career and by not yet having a doctorate."

"So she's helped you a lot personally, too?" Booth asked as he looked through some of the little trinkets out in the living area that, no doubt, had to belong to Daisy."

"Yes, very much. I… I missed you very much Booth. Daisy is dealing with her own personal stuff with Doctor Sweets, but she's always made the time to listen to me and try to help me when I needed her. She's been a very good friend."

"Friend?"

"Yes."

"C'mere, Bones." She walked into his arms and as he folded her up into his embrace he kissed her forehead before whispering, "That girl idolizes you. There's nothing she wouldn't do for you."

"While I may not agree with the idolization part," she spoke into the crook of his neck, "we have grown quite close in the nearly seven months we've been here together. Angela has nothing to worry about in the friendship status that she holds with me, but Daisy is a really good friend to me and I would like to think that it goes beyond idolization for her and that she sees me as a really good friend, too."

"I'm sure she thinks that."

Still in his arms, she tilted her head up and leaned her lips into his for a sweet kiss. The innocent start to the kiss quickly faded away into need and desperation as they took over and they only realized how out of hand they'd gotten when she walked him backwards into a wall. The loud thud he made as he hit the wall sent them both into fits of laughter.

"Maybe we should slow down."

"Slow down? Do you not want me like this?"

"Not against a wall, no, and we've got plenty of time."

"Two weeks is not plenty of time, especially in the span of a year, Booth."

"I know, poor choice of words. I'm sorry. I just mean that I just got here and I would like a little time to relax."

"I could find a way for you to achieve peak relaxation."

"I would love that, Bones. Really, I would, but I'd like to make some video calls to let people know that I'm okay now that I've got access to more than just a pen and paper, and I'd like to take a shower to wash the desert off of me, if that's okay."

"No, Booth. I was going to let you stay here for two weeks sans access to the shower," she said dryly. "I like the rugged look as much as anyone, Booth, but please… go shower."

"Join me?" Booth asked as he shed the bulk of his attire down to a black wife beater, boxers and his gold Saint Christopher medal hanging around his neck.

Brennan brought her hand up to take hers out of her shirt and hold it between her fingers as she gazed at his.

"I would rather our first time not be in that tiny cramped shower Booth," she said even as her eyes wandered from the medal to his newly exposed dark skin.

"You're right. Join me? No funny business, just a shower. Wash the jungle off?"

"Okay, but I'm telling you. The stall is tiny."

"Fine with me. I don't think I'll mind being in close quarters with you."

"Great, an excuse I can use to hold you close to me."

"Booth, you don't need excuses anymore."

"Anymore? You think I used excuses before?"

Brennan shrugged and cocked her eyebrow at him, "C'mon, Booth, guy hugs. Angela told me a long time ago… there is no such thing."

"If you knew, why didn't you say anything?"

"I was afraid you would stop," Brennan admitted, looking at him seriously as they entered the small bathroom.

"Do you know what's better than guy hugs, Bones?"

"Are you going to show me?"

"Yeah; it's called a hug between future husband and wife."

"That does sound good."

Brennan closed the tiny distance between to two of them for another hug. She could really get used to this, and then what would she do when he had to leave again? She wanted to spend as much time in his arms as she possibly could, but knew that it was only a temporary fix until they both returned to their lives in May. When he leaves to go back, she knows that it will be extremely difficult to let go, but she wouldn't trade this feeling, right now, for anything in the world.

He finally opened his eyes and looked around the tiny bathroom.

"Jeez, Bones. You weren't kidding; that shower is tiny. I hope it's bigger on the inside that it looks from the outside."

"It's not," she said, dryly. "It's horrible, but better than nothing or the showers out at the campsite near closer to the dig. I'll understand if you change your mind and want to shower alone."

"No, Bones. It'll take some maneuvering, but we'll get it done. I don't think I can stand to be apart from you for even a second right now."

She removed two of her towels from the hutch over the toilet and set them aside for them to grab easily when they were done. Brennan moved to remove her clothes, but was stopped.

"No, Bones. Let me undress you."

She put her arms down by her side and stood before him and nodded her permission. "Okay, but I get to undress you, too."

Booth laughed as his memory of another time came over him. "Do you remember when you had to undress me for evidence?"

He raised his fingers to the top buttons on her shirt and started working them open.

"Yes. That was very enjoyable for me. At the time I remember thinking, 'Merry Christmas to me!'"

Finally reaching the last button, he slipped the shirt down off of her shoulders, revealing her creamy skin, Saint Christopher's medal and a surprisingly lacy purple bra. He figured she would wear something a little more practical in the jungle.

"You didn't seem interested; you were pretty focused on the evidence."

He turned the medal over on her chest so that it was face-up once again, his touch lingering on the medal.

"I needed to focus, and I am getting good at acting, Booth. You should know this by now."

"Yeah," Booth said thoughtfully, not quite taking that as truth. There were times when her particular brand of acting worked well for them and then others… not so much.

"I made you nervous then," Brennan said with a smirk.

"Well, yeah, Bones. It was turning me on, and at the time that was very unprofes—"

She reached for the bottom hem of the wife beater he was wearing and lifted up as he raised his arms so she could lift it over his head.

"And completely normal physiological reaction. I was aroused as well," she said as she brought his shirt over his head.

"Really?" He said, his voice going up in shocked amusement at the revelation. "What about the time you saw me naked in the bathtub, huh?" Booth asked as he unbuttoned Brennan's khaki shorts and tugged the waistband of her panties from her hips and let them both fall to the floor.

Brennan toyed with the waistband of his boxers and pulled it out slightly and looked down, "Well, while you certainly don't have anything to be embarrassed about, it's hard to say how I felt then. I was furious with you and the beer hat is a huge turn off. So, not so much that time, or at least until you stood up. I had a hard time keeping my eyes up, then, but I was still mad at you and checking you out was the furthest thing from my mind." She took the waistband of his boxers lower and lower, until they fell off of his hips and pooled on the floor and he stepped out of them.

Reaching his arms around to her backside to unhook her bra, he was confused when he couldn't find it. "Bones, I know it's been awhile since I've been with a woman, but did they really change bras so much that I no longer know how to open one?" He asked, bringing them both into a fit of laughter.

Brennan placed her forehead on his bare shoulder and stifled more laughter before looking back up with a big smile to answer. "It has a front clasp, Booth."

"Good. For a second there I had to question everything I knew about undressing a woman."

Booth reached back around to the front of the bra and effortlessly flicked it open and freeing her from the material as fast as he could. He cupped her breasts into his big warm hands and leaned down to get a taste of her inviting skin.

"I thought you said no funny bus—oh Booth!" Brennan couldn't help his name crossing her lips on a moan of pleasure as he worked his mouth up from her breasts up to her clavicle and up the column of her neck. "Mmm."

After the most heated kiss they'd every shared between the two of them, Booth reached around her and turned the water on. No kiss of desperation, blackmail or tequila-fueled could ever have come close to the passion shared in that one moment. Booth adjusted the water temperature and then guided Brennan into the stall and then set some of his manlier-smelling products on the tiny shelf before stepping inside himself.

He managed to get the glass door closed, and figured out that the best way for the both of them to fit was if they stood toe-to-toe with their arms wrapped around each other.

"Looks like you'll have to wash me and I'll have to wash you."

"That is an acceptable solution, but still, if at any time you wish to have more room—"

"I'm fine, exactly the way we are, Bones." And right about that time Booth was turning her out from underneath the spray of the water and made a reach for her shampoo, and somehow knocked the door open with his butt. "Oops, we'll just close that back. There… now tilt your head back, Bones. I don't want to get it in your eyes.

Booth ran hands and fingers through Brennan's hair and made sure to lather the shampoo up enough to get her hair clean. Then he turned them back to where she was under the water. He shielded her eyes and worked his fingers through her hair thoroughly rinsing the suds out. He repeated the process for the conditioner, listening to her instruction to not get too much conditioner near the roots and scalp and keeping it mainly on the ends of her hair.

"You're good at this, Booth."

"It used to be from an entirely different angle, but when I used to give Parker baths before he could do it himself, it was always a very difficult task to keep it out of his eyes. My turn?" Booth asked, obviously looking forward to having her hands all over him.

Brennan grabbed the bottle and read the label quickly. "Is this one of those combination body wash-shampoos? This stuff is horrible for your hair. I would figure as the son of a barber that—"

"I do know, but I don't have much time for showers back in Afghanistan. It saves time and gets the job done, and this kind doesn't even smell so great like my stuff back home."

"Here," she put the bottle back down, "while you're here, you can use my shampoo. If you still want to use the other stuff as a body wash so you don't totally smell like a woman, you can."

Brennan poured a tiny bit of her shampoo in her hands, knowing that his short hair wouldn't take much. She lathered it up, being careful not to get it in his eyes.

"That already feels better than that other junk."

"It could also have something to do with the fact that I'm massaging the tension out of your scalp."

"You can't get tension in your scalp."

"Oh, so your head doesn't feel more relaxed? Because I can stop…"

"No, no. It does. I just never really realized that you can get tension in your head."

Brennan turned them to where the water was spraying down on Booth's scalp as she continued to massage the tension out and rinse the shampoo out.

Satisfied that she no longer ran the risk of getting suds in his eyes, she takes to critically studying his newly enhanced physique.

As defined and strong as he was before, the half-year of army time had been very good to him. Everything was more defined and toned and bigger but not overly so. Whatever he did in his spare time was working, and Brennan was reaping the benefits of it.

Booth lathered her soap in his hands and on her wash cloth to run over her body. He spent extra time on some of Brennan's more sensitive areas before rinsing the girly smell, which he loved (as long as it wasn't on him), away.

Much the same as Booth had done, Brennan took her time running her hands over Booth as she scrubbed his skin clean with the wash cloth. She made mental notes of where his more erogenous zones tended to be. That information would definitely come in handy later, and she knew that he had been doing the same thing with her before.

The water began to cool off. That was another drawback; a nice lengthy warm shower was virtually impossible to achieve here.

With a kiss of approval at each other's cleanliness, Booth opened the door to the shower and reached out to grab the towels as Brennan shut the cooling water off.

"Don't worry about dripping everywhere, Booth. Just step out of here. There is no way we can both dry off in here. The floor will dry."

"Okay, hurry up; I can't wait to call people. I only had time to call you when I have that window of time available to me."

"You used that on me? Parker—"

"…Is important," he finished, "but so are you. Besides, our letters were more conversational because the time between letters was not as big. It helped that I wasn't trying to send him letters from the middle of nowhere to the middle of the ocean. Response time was much quicker and he knows that it was my plan to come here and he knows that I talked to you two weeks ago and he also knows that I will call him when I get the chance to while I'm here."

"Okay, well, you may want to wait until morning though. It is still fairly early in the morning there, and I certain that Rebecca would not be appreciative of being woken up at," Brennan looked to the wall clock as they entered her room and did the conversion instantly in her head, "almost four-thirty in the morning. You should wait until morning to make any calls, unless you plan on calling Angela and Jack as it is about nine-thirty in the morning there, and I'd prefer to not have to play twenty questions with Angela right now about what we have and have not done yet."

"Okay. How about we just make an early dinner and just spend some time together, huh?" Booth asked with a waggle of his eyebrows.

"So you can make love to me."

"Yes, so I can make love to you."

Still in a state of undress, she crossed the room over to where he was standing by his duffle bag, and he barely caught her as she shoved herself into his arms and attacking his mouth, jaw and neck with her hot lips.

"I'm so glad we are finally doing this, Booth. I know I delayed this outcome when I turned you down, but I wasn't ready."

"I know, Bones. I know. I'm glad we're finally doing this together, too. I love you, so much."

"I don't think there are any words that I can say to tell you just how much I reciprocate the feeling. Saying I love you, back just doesn't even begin to cover it."

"I know what you mean. C'mon, Love." Booth led her to the bed, "You can _show me_ how much."

* * *

**I feel so blessed and fortunate to have such wonderful and genuine readers. **

**I do hope that you'll take the time to review. I know updates for this story are few and far between, but I do hope that you're still with me here. **

**XOXO,  
CrayonClown**


	9. Talking it Out is the Only Way

**I feel horrible for how long it's been since I've updated any of my fics. **

**I had to do a great deal of research to make some things in this chapter work out.  
**

** To help make up for it, this one is super long. It may be around or over 7,000 words. I think that is the longest chapter for this fic.**

**Please mind the M rating toward the end of the chapter. You will not miss anything if you skip the intimate bits.  
**

* * *

Many hours later, the thought of food long forgotten, and their biological imperatives satisfied, many times over, the couple laid together in the just barely full sized bed in Brennan's tiny bedroom.

Brennan had fallen into a light sleep as Booth watched her from his close vantage point. It was warm and muggy so neither had bothered with covering up with even the light sheet. It would have been too much.

Booth watched her chest and abdomen rise and fall with each breath. He observed her tan lines from working out in the sun and the way it revealed her natural smooth white skin next to her darker sun-kissed and slightly freckled skin. He took the time to memorize the lines and the freckles on a more intimate level than he'd ever been allowed before. He took the time to memorize the dip of her navel and the curves of her hips. The feel of her soft skin against his worn fingertips. The scent of her hair close to his face. The beauty of her eyelashes as her closed eyes twitched lightly as she slept.

Then as if she could feel his gaze on her face, her eyes opened lazily and she gazed into his twinkling brown eyes. This close to him, she could see the flecks of a lighter caramel color in his irises. She'd seen it before, but not so close that she could study them in this way before.

Neither of them spoke or said anything. Words weren't needed. Everything they needed each other to know had been demonstrated earlier.

Another thing had gone unspoken, but it had been understood by both of them.

No more running.

Brennan hated to break the moment, but she really needed to get up.

"Booth, I need to go oversee shift change. I need to make sure that everything has been handled since the incident earlier today."

"I'm sure everything is under control, but if you need to go, can I come, too?"

"Of course. It shouldn't take us long. I just need to make sure that the affected area has been properly dealt with. Then we can come back here and call Angela. She'll want to know you made it here alright, and she'll be happy to see you."

"Sounds like a plan."

As they were getting dressed, Brennan noticed Booth putting his fatigues back on.

"Don't you have anything a little bit cooler you could wear? It's not quite dark yet and the heat is still very intense after sundown here."

"Probably, but I've been in Hell for the past six months; I'm used to the heat. It's not that bad."

"You're used to dry heat. Booth, it is very humid here, and you'll want something that, for lack of a better phrase, breathes more than those will—clothes don't actually breathe, but by that I—"

"I know. You mean air can move through them and they'll be cooler. I got it. I've got some shorts. I could wear this black wife beater," he said as he pulled it over his head and bringing his Saint Christopher medal out of it so that it rested above the material, "and my khaki shorts."

Brennan pulled on her tank top and shorts.

"That should be cool enough."

.

"See, I told you, they would have it under control," Booth boasted as he walked with his arm slung around her waist.

They were leisurely walking back to Brennan's place.

"I know, but… You heard earlier what I said about the investors, right?"

"Yes, and I read about it in your letters, as well. Are they really considering pulling the plug on this project?"

"I wouldn't lie about something like that. This is something they've been threatening for months. What happened today, very well could be the cherry on top. Honestly, I—" Brennan gave a humorless chuckle, "I find myself hoping that they do pull the plug on this. We've found nothing of any significance. There have been some nice artifacts recovered, but that's not why I signed on for this, and while I would hate it for the young people on this dig, Daisy included, I'm just tired of being here. I want to go home."

"Temperance," Brennan looked up at the usage of her first name. The name he only used for serious conversations. "I know you want to go home, but you need to remember that even if you do get to go home early, I'm not going to get to. So if that's what you're hoping for, even just a little bit, you—"

"I understand. I know that you can't just leave the Army. I just mean that I want to go home. When I've gone on digs and projects in the past, they've never been for this long and they had been before we made our little… surrogate family. I miss our family, Booth."

"Angela and Jack are in Paris, not back home."

"No but they don't plan to stay there, if funding for the dig does get pulled, maybe I can go there for a little while."

"I'm sure they would love the visit, but they aren't going to want you to crash what is essentially their honeymoon."

"Good point. That would be like Daisy coming back to her room while you are still here." Brennan didn't really want to go back to DC without the people who made it her home. Jokingly, Brennan squeezed Booth's side between her fingers and Booth looked at her smirk that indicated she was about to say something that she didn't want him to take too seriously. "I could join the Rangers for six months and get myself stationed in Afghanistan with you."

"As much as I know you would kick everyone's asses and solve everything on your own over there, and I would love to have you close to me, that's not something you should joke about. Ever. Please. It's bad enough I have to be there."

"That was not very reassuring to me about your situation there."

"It's dangerous. I may not always be in direct line of fire like the boys I'm being paid to keep trained and sharp over there, but anything could happen at any time. If I didn't have to go back, I wouldn't."

"Wait, you said you're not _always_ in the line of fire. That implies that you have been."

They were silent for a few paces and Booth paused to catch his breath. He was very glad he'd taken Brennan's advice to not wear his fatigues. The humid heat was stifling, and if possible the heat had just been turned up, tenfold.

The second Booth had said that a few minutes ago, he wished he didn't word it that way because he knew she would catch it.

"You remember that first real honest deal we had between us? It was during our second case. I told you how many kills I had and that I would like to make up for that?"

"Your cosmic balance sheet?"

"Uh, yeah."

"What about it?"

"Well, back home, we more than made up for my previous time in the Rangers, but… I feel like I have to start over now." He begged her with his eyes to understand what he was saying.

"You've had to kill." She said, knowing it was fact, so she didn't bother to sugar coat it. It would not be beneficial to him for her to tread lightly around it. He knew his own reality. It was a reality, he was still going to have to live, and very possibly repeat when he went back.

He merely nodded.

"I'll help you again, you know."

"I know. Thanks."

No more was said on the subject as they both wanted to keep the conversation between them light during these two weeks.

As it would turn out, that is easier said than done.

Sure, there would be emotional conversations, but they didn't have to cover everything right this minute since he'd really just gotten there.

"Is there anything interesting to do around here?"

"Not really. Nothing other than look at various places on the island."

"Will you take me to my tree?"

"Of course I'll take you to the Boothy tree. We'll have to go tomorrow though."

"Good. When does your flock of squints get time off so that you can have time off?"

"We're scheduled to take time off tomorrow actually. After the night crew reports to me in the morning, they are free to go visit with family or stay on site. We only have a week off and for some of them going back and spending only a few days with family isn't enough time to spend any quality time with them before leaving."

"I understand that. It's why I decided not to split my time between you and Parker."

They walked some more, brushing shoulders as they went.

"Great, so in the morning, I can talk to Parker while you're out being boss lady, and then you'll be _all mine_," his grin was decidedly mischievous.

"If that's the way you want to do it, but I kind of wanted to be here when you called Parker. It's been a couple weeks since I've heard from him. I can go sign off on progress reports and then be back before you call him."

"Even better."

"We've slowed down. We should pick up the pace."

"Do you always hike to the dig site, or is there an easier way?"

"I do have access to an all-terrain vehicle, but if it isn't an urgent situation or during peak hours for heat, I have become accustomed to hiking back and forth."

"Where's my tree located in relation to where we're staying?"

"It's easier to relate it to the dig site. It's closer to the dig, but it's quite a ways off of any foot trails. It's in a very secluded area."

"And you go out there alone?"

"Yes, frequently."

"Is it dangerous?"

"No more than walking this trail back to my place. This is a relatively safe area, as long as we are not too intrusive to start stirring up issues with the guerillas."

"Guerillas? Bones!"

"They haven't bothered us since the one time."

"What one time?"

"Well, it was Daisy and me, and we were on our way back to our place from the nearby village in the jeep, but it broke down. And these armed guerillas ca—"

"Armed? Bones! What is your definition of relatively safe?"

"Well, I disarmed them, Booth. There were four of them, and I hit them with the shovel, and they haven't bothered us since then."

Booth laughed for a few seconds picturing the scene play out in his mind's eye. "So, these guys have guns and you beat them all up, with a shovel?"

"Yes."

"Well, no wonder they haven't bothered you since. You wounded their male pride. A country like this where women are not viewed in the same light like back home… a man getting beat up by a woman… They're either never going to bother you again because they're afraid or they're out there planning your kidnapping and possibly even your murder because you pissed them off. Be careful. I mean it."

"I understand. I am not naïve enough to believe that I'm always completely safe here. We were just outside the village and it's quite a ways away from here. We were nowhere near the dig site or the place where Daisy and I stay when we ran into those men. I wouldn't go so far as to say there could never be some hiding out somewhere around here, but as far as we know, this is not even in their territory."

"Be careful. That's all I'm saying."

They were silent as they walked the rest of the distance to Brennan's flat.

.

"Booth, the laptop is in the bedroom. Bring it out here and we'll set it up at the table. I'm going to start getting dinner ready."

"What's for dinner?" Booth called out as he headed into the bedroom to grab her laptop.

"Nothing fancy. Remember, we're on an island. Let's stick with something quick and easy tonight. We can have nasi goreng sapi."

Walking back out, computer in hand. As he set the laptop down, Booth had one of those looks on his face. The one that always told Brennan he had no clue what she just said. "It's not that I don't appreciate the culture emulsion, here, but what the hell is nasal gang sap?"

"_Nasi goreng sapi_, it means beef fried rice."

"Whoa, you have beef here in the jungle?"

"Yes. Water buffalo, actually, not cows, but it is beef. It's leaner and much healthier than just regular cow beef."

"Sounds good. Are you going to eat any?"

"Just the fried rice and vegetables."

Booth walked the small distance from the table to the kitchen to get something to drink.

"Got any cups in here?"

"Yes, and there is a jug of purified water in the refrigerator."

"Thanks, Baby."

"Don't call me Baby."

"It'll grow on you."

"I doubt it. So… is there anything here," she gestured to the vegetables and spices on the counter, "that you don't like?"

"Nope, it all looks good."

"Thank goodness. Daisy is a picky eater. It's very hard to cook a meal the way we both like it."

"Tell her to cook her own meals."

"She does. We take turns."

"Well, one thing you already know from all of the meals we've had over the years is that we like similar foods and I'm almost like a garbage disposal. I'll eat almost anything, unless it has eyes. I've even been known to eat your spongy stuff."

"That's not necessarily a good thing, Booth."

"All I'm saying is that you don't have to ever be afraid of cooking something that I won't try."

"I'll have to remember that in the future when there is something you refuse to eat."

"How long will this take to cook?"

"Not too long. Do you want to get the link set up while I prep the food? Then it will be ready to cook after we call Angela. I believe you already know my password."

"Is is daffodil again?"

"Yes. After you guessed my back-ups, I just decided to change it back. There was no point in trying to change it to something you wouldn't guess."

"Should I go ahead and call her?"

"You can. It'll just take me a few minutes to chop these vegetables up and put the rice on to cook."

Brennan worked quickly with experienced precision and was nearly done chopping vegetables when the call went through to Paris.

"Booth! Hey, look at you!" Angela gushed upon seeing his dark face appear on her screen.

"Hi, Angela. Long time no see. You look great. Paris is treating you well. Hodgins, how ya doin', man?"

"We're good here. Good to see you're safe. How's the _girlfriend_?" Hodgins teased him a little bit, letting him know that he knew about them.

Booth had figured that since Brennan had told Angela that they were together now, that it would only me a matter of time before she could keep it from her husband anymore.

"You told him, Ange?" Booth groaned half-heartedly.

"Studly, I practically screamed it off the terrace, here. Jack was just a helpless victim of auditory rape."

"I'm still hearing ringing, by the way," Hodgins told his wife. "But, Angie and I are really happy for you two."

"Hey, what gives? Where is Bren anyway? Oh, wait. Don't tell me. You ravished her the very second you stepped off of the plane and you've been going at it like youthful bunnies ever since and she's so worn out that you decided to call us while she rests."

"That is not at all accurate, Ange," the couple in Paris heard Brennan's distant voice come over the feed. "Not completely anyway."

"Bones!"

"Relax, Booth. Angela knows we are together and that you are here to spend time with me. It is logical that we would have sex while you are here."

"Yes, but she doesn't need it confirmed."

"You two are _adorable_. Bren! What are you doing? Please tell me the reason I cannot see you is because you are orally—"

"Do not finish that statement, Angela," Booth warned holding up a finger in a threatening manner.

"If you were going to say that I am orally pleasuring Booth, that is, in a manner of speaking, accurate—"

Booth coughed and sputtered, "It's _not _what you think! What she means is that she's _cooking dinner_… which we are going to eat… with our mouths… _that _kind of oral pleasure."

"So, I have to ask, Sweetie. Is Booth as much of a prude as he seems?"

"Not at all. It seems that his Puritanical tendencies stem from the desire for privacy and respect rather than embarrassment."

"You know, I'm _right here_."

"Okay, fine. We're done messing with you," Angela conceded. She would just pester Brennan later until she cracked and gave some form of indication as to how good in bed Seeley Booth was.

"How's Paris?" Booth asked, making sure the subject actually did get changed.

"It's a dream. I'd visited before, but actually living here… it's indescribable, really. It's nice to get to see things up close rather than just out of the car window as you drive by because you don't actually have time to do anything. Everything here is so relaxed and elegant and so different from what we're used to back in D.C."

"We really do love it here," Jack continued. "I told Doctor B. the other day when she called that Angie was joking around about having me pay to have a lab built here and for everyone to move here permanently to solve murders here in France."

"That's some idea you have there, Ange," Booth told her. Truth was, it sounded wonderful… in theory only. There were other factors that he obviously would never find a way around, such as Pops, Parker, and the fact that he'd have absolutely no legal jurisdiction there whatsoever. He figured there were similar issues with everyone else as well.

"Yeah, well, Jack thinks I was joking, but I was fairly serious when I mentioned it."

Brennan was finished prepping the food and decided to join the conversation more by sitting close to Booth so they were both in the picture.

"Ange, while that sounds incredible, there are so many reasons that would never work. Booth would never leave Pops and Parker. I've got my dad, Russ and the girls, Amy, Margaret—although we do not get along very well, she's tried to make an effort and has called me here a few times—we can't just abandon our lives back home. I think we've done enough of that this year," she said remorsefully.

"I wouldn't have jurisdiction anyway," Booth added as an afterthought to Brennan's argument.

There was no way for Brennan to know whether or not things would have worked out between her and Booth if she'd never gotten on that plane and had that dream. She didn't know if she would have ever had the courage to bring up her feelings for him, much less if she would have ever really realized them for what they were in the first place.

She didn't regret leaving. She couldn't. Not after everything it brought her, but she was definitely ready to go home, with Booth. She was ready to face the reality of their future lives together in their home environment with their family, friends and jobs. She was contrite that she'd been so intent on getting away from it all for an entire year. She'd come to realize just how important everything they'd left behind really was. She knew it was wrong, but she found herself once again hoping more and more that the dig was scrapped or that they'd at least send her home in hopes that they had not wasted too much of her valuable and expensive time.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" Angela asked.

The conversation had carried on without her, and at Angela's question and concerned tone, Booth turned to look at her pale white face.

"Nothing. I'm fine. I was just… zoning out," Brennan said as she plastered a fake smile on her face. She looked to Booth, "Did I say that right?"

"Yeah, but what were you thinking about?"

"Can I tell you later?"

"Sure, as long as you promise you'll talk to me. No more shutting me out."

"I promise." She leaned further into him as he brought his arm around her waist to pull her closer and then he placed a big kiss to her temple, which caused a more genuine smile.

"There's the happy Bren I love," Angela said, breaking into their world and alerting them to the fact that they were still connected to Jack and Angela.

"We can talk more later. I can see desire written all over the Sarge's face," Jack said.

"What? No!" Angela said. "We practically just connected the line. We haven't even really talked about anything, yet."

"Maybe if you didn't spend so much time on our sex life…" Booth chipped in. "And Hodgins, it isn't like I'm about to jump her or anything. We are making dinner. We've got time to kill right now."

"Are you sure?" asked Hodgins. "We don't want to keep you."

"Hey, we're the ones who called you, remember," Booth assured them.

"We appreciate it," Hodgins told them. "We know you must be tired from all of the traveling, Booth."

"Among other things," Angela added saucily with a devilish grin.

"…Any way, we're glad you're safe and that you made it there okay." Hodgins gave Angela a look that told her to knock it off.

"It's been really hard not seeing your cheerful face and hearing your voice every day, Booth," Angela said seriously. "When everyone left, back in May, I wasn't sure we'd ever make it back to what we were to each other. Everyone was so tired and so drab, but seeing you two so happy and for the most part looking refreshed, I _know_ that we'll all be okay."

It was Booth who spared Brennan from having to repeat it, but he knew she was thinking it, so he had to say it before she did, "I still have to go back. Anything can still happen." He didn't like to think that way, but if it saved Brennan from having to voice it, he would say it to keep her from having to.

The statement sobered everyone up. Booth's life would still be in danger.

No one had realized that this call would have so many emotional ups and downs. It almost made everyone want to just sit and stare and enjoy each other's silent company, but then that left them to listen to their own dangerous minds.

"So, Booth. Have you talked to Parker yet? I bet he's excited that you're going to be able to call. I bet it's really hard being under such a blacked out area."

"I haven't talked to him yet. We were going to wait until the morning because of the time difference. That would put our conversation right before he goes to bed. And yeah, it is hard to not be able to have a conversation with the people that are so much of a motivational factor in my life. The other guys too, it's really tough on the younger ones, especially the first timers wanting to talk to parents, siblings, girlfriends, fiancé's, young children. Many of us are in similar situations like that," he explained.

"But Booth is still able to communicate through letters," Brennan added, thinking of her own letters.

"Uh, yeah. I've been able to talk to Parker through letters. I know it means as much to him as it does to me."

"Me, too, Booth," Brennan once again added. "I don't know what I'd do without Booth's daily letters," she looked down, almost as if she were ashamed of how much she relied on reading one of his letters each day. No matter how they came to her, by the bundle or in single form, she read one at the start of each day and then wrote to him each night before bed. It was a routine that she'd established not too long after their letters became a steady connection between them.

His letters were her driving force.

Booth rubbed his hand up and down her side, where it still rested wrapped around her.

"Are you guys sure you want to talk to us right now?" Angela asked. "We really will understand if you don't."

"We're fine," they both replied.

"We're just both sensitive to just about anything and any little reminder. That's all," Booth shrugged. "The same thing would be happening even if we weren't talking to you guys."

"He's right. No matter how much effort we put into keeping things light, we always end up opening up another issue. We're fine. Really."

"Okay," came the responses of Jack and Angela.

"Hodgins, did you get the picture of the tree I sent you?" Brennan asked.

"Yeah, but I was unsure why you sent it to me."

"Did you send him a picture of my tree?" Booth asked with a huge smile.

"Yes. I would like to know what kind it is."

"I'd have to do a little research. I'm not familiar with trees in that area other than the main spice trees and plants and I don't just have access to a database here that I can look it up on quickly."

Booth looked over to a twig that laid on the table near them. He picked it up and held it up to the camera on the laptop. "If it helps in your search, the twig smells like me… well, when I'm at home anyway. Like my sandalwood aftershave, and kinda… minty. Is that how you would describe it?"

"That sounds about right. It's also kind of a musky smell. Not overly sweet, but still very strong."

"Okay, that will give me somewhere to start. What island are you guys on? It might make a difference as some tree are unique to a single island in Indonesia."

"Bacon," Booth replied.

"Bacan, Booth. Bah-kahn."

"Wow, Bacan? An American entomologist by the name of Adam Messer made an astounding discovery there. There's a monster-sized bee there called the _megachile pluto._ It was thought to have been extinct until Messer found several nests there in 1981. The females are one-and-a-half inches in length with a wingspan of two-and-a-half inches. Have you seen any of these beauties, Doctor B.?"

"I don't think so."

"Back to my tree, please." Booth said. The info was interesting, but Booth really didn't want to know much about the bugs outside. He hoped they were going to spend a great deal of their time indoors.

"Your tree?" Angela asked with amusement.

"Yes, the Boothy tree." Brennan replied in confirmation, as if it was no big deal that she'd pretty much named a tree after her lover.

"In all likelihood, it's a subspecies of s_yzygium_, which is the same genus of clove trees. They are highly aromatic and most of these are fruiting trees. Are there any blooms or fruit visible on the tree?"

"Not currently, and I've never seen anything other than leaves on it," Brennan recalled from what she remembered of the past six months."

"It's also possible that it's a type of Indonesian Bay Leaf. I can look it up and find out for sure."

"Thank you," Brennan said. "It would mean a lot if you did. Like his letters, the tree has gotten me through some tough times here, and I'd like to know what it really is."

"Hey, no problem. Happy to help. Find any cool bugs lately?"

"Nope, not since that giant grasshopper."

"What is it with foreign bugs being gargantuan?" Booth asked. "Do you have any idea how big the roly-polies are in Afghanistan? Huge! And they look like they have armor!"

"You mean pill bugs," Brennan corrected.

"Well, I always called them roly-polies."

"Pill bugs."

"Roly-polies," Booth got in one last time.

"Yeah… those are called woodlice."

"I called them _armadillo bugs_," Angela chipped in. "Hey, don't look at me like that. I grew up in Texas. Are we done talking about bugs now?"

"Sure. How's married life, Ange?" Booth asked.

"I don't know. You tell me. You guys act more married than we probably ever will."

Booth covered the camera lens on the laptop. "Do they _know?"_

"About…" Brennan didn't quite understand until he answered her by pulling her medal out of the top of her tank and setting it where it was visible above her cleavage. "Oh, _that_. No, they don't know."

"Know about what?" Angela inquired.

"Should we tell them?" Booth asked.

"Blocking the video feed with your hand doesn't shut the audio feed off, you know," Hodgins added, making sure to keep from laughing. Clearly, they thought they were in their own world.

So typical Booth and Brennan. Nothing they went through would ever change that.

"I don't know. Should we? I thought we wanted to wait," Brennan whispered.

"I can still hear you, Sweetie. You might as well tell me now, or I'll be a pain in the ass to talk to until you do."

"Can you guys keep a secret?" Booth asked, keeping his palm covering the webcam.

"I'd like to think we can," Hodgins said. "Ange?"

"I can keep a secret… as long as Jack knows as well, then it's impossible for me to accidently tell him."

Booth took his other hand and held his medal up out of his wife beater and motioned for Brennan to do the same thing with hers. Once she held the little pendant up he removed his hand from the webcam.

"They're pretty. What about them requires so much secrecy?" Jack asked.

"Bren, I don't understand the significance here. You already told me he got a medal just like his for you and you showed me, too, back when you first received it. Why are you showing me again?"

"It's not just a medal or a necklace, Angela, and please don't be mad for keeping you in the dark," Booth said with a serious look in his eyes. Happy, but still very serious.

Brennan's smile widened and shined in greater brilliance, "We've been engaged for six months."

They were met with Angela gasping and saying, "Wow," as Hodgins asked them if they were serious before they both congratulated Booth and Brennan.

"Wait, so you're not angry with me for keeping it from you," Brennan asked.

"Wha—Sweetie! No, of course not. If you had waited six months to tell me when we were back home, we would have had a throw down, but Bren, you haven't even been able to enjoy your own engagement. I'm not mad. And I'm definitely glad you've decided to give Booth what he wants."

"You mean, what we both want. I would not be doing this if I didn't want it, too," Brennan defended.

"It wasn't even _my_ idea," Booth said with a wink.

"You don't honestly expect me to believe that Bren is the one who suggested that you get married..." Angela said in exasperation.

"No. That's not what I said."

"It was Parker's idea, actually. He asked Booth if he was going to ask me to marry him, and I assured Parker that should his father ever ask me, that I would accept the proposal."

"…Which shocked the hell out of me…"

"I bet!" Angela said, with tears in her eyes, silently blessing that child.

"When Parker left the room, I popped the question. I had to. I couldn't let either one of us just wait around for the right time to ask or be asked. Not when we're both finding ourselves in dangerous situations, and especially since I knew the answer."

"I can't wait to start making plans with you, Bren."

"Me either, Angela."

"You guys cannot tell anyone about this. Parker doesn't know, and I don't want him accidentally finding out," Booth told them and they nodded in response.

"And we can't let the wrong people find out yet. We don't know how this is going to affect our partnership yet," Brennan said cautiously.

"Well, let's not worry about that now, Sweetie. Your secret is safe with us. Besides, I think Jack might know a guy who knows a guy… if you know what I mean. If there's a problem with the FBI, we can take care of it somehow. Right?" She asked elbowing her husband.

"Sure. I know a few guys in high places, and lucky for you—or not if you decide against it—some of them are pretty crooked and have low ethical standards; they would have no problem taking a bribe or knowing them, I can probably dig up enough for a little blackmail to keep you guys as partners."

"…Uh, we'll discuss that when we get there," Booth dismissed, not wanting him to go into any more detail. He prayed to God that Hodgins wouldn't actually do any of that, especially since he now knew about it. "Right now, I think the rice is done steaming. So we need to go finish making dinner."

"Okay," Angela said with a noticeable pout. This had been a very welcome chat, and she was sad to see it end.

"Sure, man," Hodgins said. "Hey, we'll talk again soon. Okay?"

"Of course. It's been great seeing you guys. Really. We're not anywhere near D.C., any of us, but this conversation felt like we were home, ya know?"

Angela and Hodgins just nodded, knowing that it took a lot for him to admit that, and it was difficult for them to hear the emotion in their tough g-man's voice.

Even Brennan could tell that Booth was getting a little emotional, "We miss you guys very much."

"So, so much," Booth added.

"We miss you, too." They responded in unison.

"We'll call again, when we get the chance," Brennan told them. A chorus or 'byes' were said before Jack severed the connection, knowing that he was probably the one most able to handle doing so.

"That was…" Booth couldn't think of a word adequate enough to describe that experience.

"…Intense?" Brennan finished for him. The word was simple, but effective and inadequate, at the same time, as a description, and nothing else really fit the situation well enough.

"I don't think future calls with them will be as tough. It was the first contact you've had with anyone besides me and your family. It was bound to be difficult after six months. You and Parker have exchanged letters, so I don't think it will b—"

"No, no. It will be. He's my son. I know I made the right choice for us that I'm spending my two weeks here, but that comes with a little bit of guilt as well. I don't want him to think I chose you over him. There's just—It was the only option that let me enjoy as much of both of you as possible. I can call Parker or connect through Skype any time I want to. Well, almost anytime. I know Rebecca won't appreciate really late or early calls, but the point is that I can have access to him almost anytime I want to here."

"And you wouldn't have, had you gone home. I know. Parker will understand. He's a brilliant boy, Booth. He'll be excited to see you over here with me."

"I know, and he's excited about us being together," Booth told her, his bright smile coming back. "Let's get this dinner cooked and then get on to bed.

.

Once again, they showered together, caressing lovingly as they worked hard to keep someone's hip, elbow or but from popping the door open as they cleaned the sweat from each other's bodies. They were getting pretty good at it, but the water was starting to run cold.

"I guess that's our cue to get out."

They dried off, but neither of them bothered to get dressed as they walked into Brennan's room.

Booth gave her ass a light swat before they turned to walk to opposite sides of the bed. Brennan sat on the edge of the bed and set the alarm for early in the morning. She pulled the covers all the way back and they both climbed in, scooting close to each other until they met in the middle and smiling into their kisses.

Brennan shivered a little as the cool air from the fan hit her slightly damp skin. Booth covered more of her with himself and kissed her with a passion that had at one time only been possible in his imagination, and even that couldn't hold a candle to this.

He rolled to his back and pulled her on top of him, pressing their bodies closer, yet skillfully never leaving her lips. One arm hugged her waist tightly as the other caressed her face gently. Her hand grasped lightly behind his neck, massaging the muscles. For that moment in time, all else stopped. Even though they were far from civilization as they knew it, it seemed as if time only progressed for them. Only they existed.

She trailed her kisses to the tender part of his neck, just above the collarbone. He hissed softly and she could feel the goose bumps arising on his skin. She continued random kisses along his chest and neck. His hands roamed the skin on her sides and back.

Brennan pressed herself once more into Booth, kissing him with everything in her. Her tongue slid slightly over his bottom lip, and he parted his lips a little to allow access. His heart beat a steady tempo into her chest, and she caused it to quicken when she slid her thigh up between his legs. He let out another soft hiss.

Smiling to herself as her own heart rate increased, she sat up a bit and took in his face. It was kind and gentle, but the glazed-over look in his shining brown eyes made a great contrast.

Her hand slipped down and grasped a hold of him in her palm. His eyes closed as his breathing quickened. She slithered down his body and met her sweet lips to his sensitive skin and immediately kissed up and down the entire length. She felt various muscles in his body tense and relax, and she got some twisted pleasure in knowing that she was the cause of it.

He pulled her up, unexpectedly, and flipped her into the soft pillows. Laughter escaped her lips as he placed himself over her and eased into her, cataloguing her reaction. Once she was adjusted, she nodded her head and kissed him once more. He pulled himself out a bit before reentering each time with a slightly harder force.

She was lost for words, and instead allowed her nails to rake at his bare back. She knew it'd probably leave marks later, but right now she was conscious to only one thing. Them.

He increased his pace as he felt himself getting close. He knew she was, too, due to the look on her face that he now knew meant her orgasm was near. Suddenly, her walls tightened around him, and her back arched. She was spiraling into the unknown and she let out a loud moan to match. That was all it took to send him spiraling down with her. He gave way and released into her, groaning loudly as he thrust his tense body once more before collapsing in a heap on top of her.

Booth kissed Brennan's forehead gently once more before rolling over again, pulling her as close to him as possible. He grabbed at the cool sheet, tangled at the foot of the bed, and pulled it up to cover them both before exchanging goodnight kisses and sweet words in their lover's ear, and then falling into a deep sleep in each other's arms.

* * *

**Please don't hate me for skipping over their first time being together. If I can bring it together and organize it in a satisfying manner, there is a reason I did that. If I can't, then I don't think it is that big of a deal. This fic is not supposed to just focus on the sex. Obviously, there will be some, as there just was, but they aren't going to fuck every time they turn around. **

**I'm working on several things right now. I'm still working on a story between B&B in Sweets office after Sweets finds out about the baby. I'm working on a chapter for She Isn't Enough, which will be entirely in Parker's point of view. I ain't going to lie. That sort of scares me, but I'm up for the challenge. I should have an update for Jelly Bean out in the next couple of days. There's a lot of research that needs to be done for that one as well because of the case. Hopefully, it won't take too long. It's already nearly 4,000 words.**

**Let me know what you thought of the chapter before you click away from this page.**

**XOXO,  
CrayonClown**


	10. Hearts Growing Fonder

The next morning, when Brennan woke up to the buzzing of her alarm clock, she had a hard time moving to shut it off as she realized her body was deliciously encumbered by the weight of Booth's arm draped over her. Never before had she welcomed such a feeling as being trapped by another man's arms. She felt secure and loved. She smiled when she felt more warmth in her chest as his warm breathing tickled her neck. He had his face and nose buried into the back of her head and hair.

She laid there for a bit, thinking about how she could have had this much sooner, had she not been so stubborn before when Booth offered her a chance to be with him. She'd been foolish by trying not to hurt him and ended up hurting both of them anyway. She regretted that decision, as much as she tried not to. She knew that maybe that event needed to happen so they could be here, where they are now. She would never know, but she did know now that she would never regret her decision to go to Maluku considering where it had led her so far. The only thing she wished she could change was the fact that when he left, he would be going back to Afghanistan, instead of home where they both belong.

She needed to get up. She wanted to go take care of business and get back so that they could call Parker.

But she didn't want to disturb her lover.

He needed his sleep. They'd been rather active last night and he had already been tired from traveling and spending the day with her after his arrival.

There was a light roll of thunder that caused Booth to stir and remove his arm from around her as he turned over onto his other side and snuggled his rear back into her warmth.

She gave silent thanks to the early morning storm and got up from the bed, carefully, to get ready.

Once she was showered and about to leave, she turned around to look back at Booth, still sleeping in her bed. She felt a slight guilt at having to leave him there. She thought for a moment and then did something that she never bothered to do in the past with anyone else. She went over to the small credenza in the corner of the room and pulled out a pad of paper. She scrawled a note to him and stuck it on her side of the bed, but she was hoping that she could get back before he woke up, alone, to the note.

She walked outside to leave and decided that since she was in a hurry and it was raining that instead of walking she would take the ATV.

.

Brennan was thankful that she'd taken the ATV and that her time at the dig site was short. She signed papers quickly and made a few satellite calls that couldn't wait. She also took some time in the communications tent to send a few emails to some of the coordinators for the project.

When she returned from her duties, Booth was still asleep and the note next to him had not been touched.

Brennan grabbed the note and threw it away before getting undressed.

She looked at the clock to see that it read 6:16 am. She'd been gone less than half an hour. She decided to climb back into bed. She managed to do so without disturbing Booth.

_He must be more tired than he led on last night, _she thought. She snuggled up behind him and caressed the bare skin on his side with her fingertips. His muscles tensed underneath her touch, but still, he did not wake.

_He's ticklish,_ she laughed to herself. _Who would have ever thought that Seeley Booth is ticklish?_

She thought about all of the little things she learned that he loved and responded well to last night in their lovemaking. She couldn't wait to learn more.

And as much as she wanted to let him catch up on sleep, her desire to learn more about him overtook her desire to let him sleep.

She found herself doing other things she never would have done with anyone else. She'd never been the cuddling kind, but she took a moment to enjoy nuzzling her nose and face into the back of Booth's neck.

He shivered slightly as the warmth of her breath hit the back of his neck, just as his had done to her earlier that morning.

She moved carefully to bring the light cool sheet over the top of both of them and tried to close her eyes for a few minutes to just feel him there next to her. And smell his presence. He'd been in her bed one night and already his scent lingered in her sheets along with the scent of their lovemaking.

When she opened her eyes again, she could tell that his breathing had changed and he was now awake and trying to make her think that he was still asleep. He must have woken when she moved to pull the sheet up.

She began to wonder if he felt awkward.

She'd been there before. If she took time to think about it, she'd been in that awkward moment the morning after the first time together with every other man she'd ever been with. And some of those first times, she'd never given them a chance at a morning after because she'd dreaded it so much that she left before they ever woke up.

For once in her life, she could honestly say that she didn't feel that.

She hoped that it was the same for him.

Maybe he was just taking the time to enjoy the moment as she had been doing.

She began placing light kisses around his right shoulder blade and trailed her kisses up to his neck and his ear. She sat up slightly to nibble on his earlobe, wondering if he would start to show that he was actually awake.

Just as she suspected, he leaned back into her, rolled onto his back and tilted his neck to give her more access to his neck and face. She moved quickly out of his way so that she wouldn't get trapped underneath him.

She brought one leg over his hip, to where she was straddling his body and poised herself almost like a cat above him with her palms splayed in his bare chest for support.

"Good morning, Booth," Brennan purred right beside his ear, before she took his earlobe in her mouth once again.

She could feel him stir against her backside.

Then she sucked on the spot just below his ear. She'd learned the night before that he was really responsive in that spot, and so many others.

A low moan escaped his throat before he spoke, "Mhm. Good morning. Don't you need to go get stuff done?"

She took her mouth away from his collarbone only long enough to reply, "Already done. I'm all yours for the next week."

"Then what time is it?"

"I don't know. Stop talking."

"What about Parker? I need to call him," Booth didn't want her to stop what she was doing. Not at all, but he really missed his son and couldn't wait to talk to him.

"We have time, Booth. It's still dark outside here. The sun is usually out by time I call him. If we call right now, they are probably having dinner."

"Oh, okay."

Now more interested in her ministrations, Booth reached up to take a breast in each hand and cupped them before running the back of his fingernails over her stiffening nipples.

She went to kiss his mouth, but he placed his hand in the way to stop her.

"Whoa, wait. Morning breath."

She frowned when she thought that he was trying to tell her that her breath stunk. Booth caught the look on her face and quickly eased her mind.

"Not you. Me. You've been up for a bit and have had a chance to take care of your stuff, I just need a moment to go pee and brush my teeth."

She rolled off of him and landed on her pillows with a soft huff as the material gave way around her.

He scurried off into the bathroom, not even bothering to close the door behind him.

After she heard the toilet flush and the water running briefly as he washed his hands and ran his toothbrush under the water, she shared what was on her mind.

"For the record, Booth, your hygiene habits are by far better than anyone else I've ever been with. I think I would have survived one kiss before you left me here all cold and alone," she gave a faux pout. "It could have even just been on the forehead, if you would have preferred."

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Bones," Booth said through a mouthful of toothpaste.

Wasn't that the truth! They could both attest to that fact, having been away from each other for several months.

"The longer you take, the less time we will have."

He spit the excess toothpaste into the sink and rinsed his toothbrush out before taking a handful of water and bringing it up to his lips to rinse his mouth out.

"I thought you said we have plenty of time."

"We do, but I figured you would like to take a breather before calling your son."

Booth walked into the room and sat on her side of the bed, looking into her eyes, making sure she was listening as he corrected her, "_Our_ son."

"Booth, Parker is—" She began to protest. She wasn't entirely sure that Rebecca would be okay with her considering Parker to be her own son.

"We're a package deal, Bones. If I'm going to be your husband, Parker will be your step-son."

"I know. I just don't want to overstep any boundaries."

"Look, I can't replace Rebecca in Parker's life no more than she can replace me. And, hey, we have time before we're back home. We've got time for you to adjust to the idea."

"We keep saying that; don't we?"

Booth invaded her space and pushed her back into the pillows as he hovered over her naked form.

"Keep saying what?" He leaned down to take a breast into his mouth, teasing the soft tissue.

"That we have time. We've got time to talk, time to adjust, time before we go back to our normal lives, time before calling Parker. We keep saying that, but time is one of the things we have the least of here."

He let her nipple fall from his lips and began massaging her breasts with his hands in the absence of his mouth.

"You're over-thinking everything. Just feel, baby. Live in the moment. It's all we have right now. Don't waste what precious time we do have on worrying so much."

He turned his attention back to her inviting flesh and as he braced himself above her, she felt his erection against her thigh.

"You always say the exact right things," she sighed. "You always seem to know exactly what I need to hear."

She shifted her hips back and forth in anticipation.

"I know you, Bones."

He repositioned himself above her.

"I also know that not all of our issues can be solved between us right here, right now. We can only take things as they come to us. We'll tackle it when it's time, but right now," he kissed her lips, "I'm going to make love to my beautiful fiancé."

Brennan's entire body seemed to go a lovely shade of pink as he called her beautiful and entered her in one smooth stroke.

.

"You cooled off yet, Booth?" Brennan asked, still out of breath and laying against his rapidly rising and falling chest.

"I don't know. I can't feel my body and I'm pretty sure I need an oxygen mask."

"I think I've finally figured out all the hype about page 187. I don't think I gave Angela a big enough cut for her assistance. She definitely deserves more."

"Have you done that with anyone else before?" Booth asked. He'd been certain that she had with at least the deep sea welder, if no one else. He remembered her saying that she would like to try it, so he figured she must have by now.

"No. I've never trusted anyone else enough to allow them to do that. What about you?"

"No. That was a first. I've gone through quite a dry spell."

"Well, now I'm curious. How long has it been for you, Booth?"

"Uh, since I broke up with Cam."

"That's been almost three years. I'm very impressed that you've been able to keep your stamina… So I guess that means that you and Catherine didn't…"

"No. She wanted to, but I couldn't make her the rebound girl. It would have been unfair. She was nice, and I didn't think it would have been right."

"But we weren't together," Brennan was confused as to how that would have made Catherine the rebound girl.

"No we weren't, but you've been the standard probably since I've met you. I was so stupid to try to move on instead of fight for you. And it was definitely easier said than done. Nothing I did or said changed how I felt about you."

"I didn't make it easy. I know."

"Hey, as long as we're talking about this, there's something I have to know as well. You and Hacker…"

"No. I couldn't do that to you. I knew I had feelings for you even though I didn't know what to do with those feelings. Plus, I was never as into Andrew as he was into me."

"He never stood a chance, did he?"

"No. Not at all. Apparently, you're the standard, too."

.

"Booth, are you dressed yet? I'm about to connect the call," Brennan said as she had the mouse hovered over Rebecca's Skype username, ready to connect once Booth gave the all clear.

"Yeah, I'm ready, but don't you think you should wear a little more than _just _my t-shirt?"

"No one can see us below the desk. And your shirt goes down to my mid-thigh. I don't think it's a problem."

"Are they online?" He asked.

She could tell that he was excited to finally get to talk to Parker.

"Yes, I was just waiting on you to get settled before I connected. Ready?"

"Yes." Booth looked to Brennan and smiled big and then reached over to fix her hair a bit so that she didn't look like they just did what they did. He knew his son wouldn't know, but he knew Rebecca would. She was a lot like Angela in that way and very intuitive when it came to interpersonal relationships. It was probably one of the qualities that made her such a good lawyer.

"Thanks," Brennan told him after he was done smoothing her hair down and she clicked the link to connect.

When they were connected they had video but no audio feed. The adults worked very quickly to fix the problem as they took turns waving to a bright-eyed and excited Parker.

"Seeley. Can you hear us yet?"

"Yeah, I think we've figured it out," Booth replied. "Can you see and hear us?"

Rebecca barely answered that they could before Parker's excited voice filled the air.

"Dad!"

"Hey, Bub! Have you been good for your mom?"

"Yeah."

"Is that the truth?" He asked Rebecca and she confirmed that it was true.

"Of course it's true. Our kid is his father's son."

"Booth is one of the most honest and trustworthy people I've ever known," Brennan added, gaining a smile from the man next to her as well as from the woman half a world away.

"Doctor Brennan, how have you been? It's been a few weeks since we've talked." Then she explained to Booth, "Sometimes I'm here when Parker gets the call, and sometimes I'm just getting home and Parker takes the call alone."

"I've been good. It's been hard anticipating Booth's arrival or not knowing if he could actually get away and come here like he said he would. Every little letter from Booth and Parker has helped. Parker are you excited to talk to your dad?"

"Yeah! You, too, but I haven't talked to my dad in _for-ev-er_."

"Are you excited to be out of school for a few weeks," Booth asked.

"Yeah, fifth grade is hard stuff dad. Bones usually helps me when she calls. Otherwise mom's a good helper too. I'm just glad to have a break."

"I'm glad to have a break, too, buddy."

"Are you happy to be on a break from saving people?"

"Yeah. I am. Helping others is hard work. I'm very glad to have a break so that I can come see Bones and talk to you."

"Who's going to save people while you're with Bones?"

"Not everyone gets the same two weeks off. We all take turns so that there are always other soldiers there," Booth replied. "Are you ready for Christmas?" Booth asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Yeah!"

"I wish I could be home with you, buddy."

Brennan looked over to notice that while he wasn't crying his eyes were definitely watery. She reached around his back and rubbed her hand up and down across his back, showing her silent support.

Concentrating on her touch, he almost missed his son say, "I don't."

"What?" Booth asked with a frown. "Why wouldn't you want your old man to come see you for Christmas?"

"Because then Bones would be alone! Duh, dad!" Parker's tone told Booth that it was obvious and he shouldn't have even asked why.

"That's very thoughtful of you Parker," Brennan said with a smile towards Booth. "Parker, I sent a few things for you. Just some souvenirs from here that I hope will find you in a timely manner. I have some other things to bring back with me that are for you, but I thought that some of them would make good Christmas gifts since your dad and I cannot be there in person."

"Cool! Thanks, Bones." Parker's face lit up at the mention of gifts. "I sent something for you, too. I drew a picture to go with it. Since dad is there, you can show him, too. You can even show him the first picture I sent you, if you want."

Brennan nodded, remembering the first letter he'd sent her that had a picture with it. She'd wanted to be able to talk to Booth about it and show him ever since she'd received it, but Parker hadn't wanted her to. So she didn't.

"Hey, Parks, sorry I'm haven't been in the position to get you anything. We've been under a communication blackout."

"Seeley," Rebecca spoke up, "Don't worry about it. Temperance and I took care of it. She anticipated that you wouldn't be able to have access to get something and gave me the heads up and we came up with something that would be good as a gift from you."

"Really? What is it?" Parker asked.

"You're just going to have to wait until Christmas morning. Right, Rebecca?" Brennan smiled coyly at the webcam.

"Right."

"You didn't have to do this for me," he told Brennan.

"No, I didn't, but I thought it would be a nice thing to do. I have your back, Booth."

"Well, do I get to know what I got for him?" Booth asked.

"I'll tell you later," Brennan said.

Booth nodded.

"Dad, it's snowing here and it's so cold mom won't even let me outside."

"Sometimes it can be dangerous, Parker," Brennan offered in defense of Rebecca's decision. Brennan remembered similar restrictions her parents had when they lived in Chicago. Winters could be brutal and very dangerous.

"Just make sure you listen to her, pal," Booth added. "You don't want to get frostbite."

"Oh, I will. Is it snowing there?"

"No," they both answered.

Then Brennan added, "It's raining right now. Plus, it's actually summer here and it's very hot, but even in the winter it doesn't get cold enough to snow."

"It doesn't? That's crazy. I thought it snowed everywhere," Parker looked incredulous. "So, it's always just rain?"

Brennan nodded.

"That's boring," Parker said. "At least with snow you can make snow angels and snowmen and build forts and have snowball fights."

"Aw, Bones! We're going to miss our yearly snowball fights!"

"Dad! You guys have snowball fights? That's so cool!"

"All the time. Bones usually starts them. She's so mean."

"What? I do not start them!"

"Yes, you do! You always manage to get me when I least expect it. Usually, you peg me right in the back of the head."

"One time! And that's because you wouldn't answer my question."

"I—Okay. It was only the one time that you pegged me in the back of the head, but what about the time you knocked the wind out of me after packing the snowball as tightly as you could and pelting me in the chest with it? It left a bruise!"

They were both smiling as they regaled the two people of the other end with their banter.

"I told you that I didn't want you to take me home! I was working."

"And it was late and there was a big snow storm. The case could have waited."

"And you didn't have to carry me out of the lab!"

"Hey, I put you down when we got outside."

"After I jammed my elbow into your kidney."

"Yeah, that hurt." He gazed at her warmly. "Did you have to add insult to injury by hitting me with a snowball?"

They seemed to be getting closer by the second.

"I was mad," closer, still, "and I didn't mean for it to hurt. I just wanted to… get your attention a little."

They were a hairsbreadth away from each other now.

"It worked," Booth breathed out, the words barely audible.

But before Booth could lean in that fraction more, Brennan pulled back, leaving a stunned Booth staring off into space where her face had just been.

_Did she really just do that?_ He asked himself. When he had regained enough of his conscious thought back, he rejoined the conversation that had clearly moved on somehow.

"…and later we're going tree shopping. Mom says that if we did it too early the tree would dry out and look bad, but if we waited too long all the good trees would be gone. I don't want a Charlie Brown tree."

"What's a Charlie Brown tree?" Brennan asked. "I'm fairly certain there is no subspecies of the spruce named that, commonly or otherwise."

"We'll google it later, Bones," Booth said, patting her leg, feeling her bare skin, and suddenly remembering that the only thing she was wearing was his shirt. He shifted slightly after removing his hand from her leg. "_Then_, then we're going to find _A Charlie Brown Christmas_ online and we're going to watch it."

"Are you guys going to have a tree?" Parker asked.

"There are no spruce trees here. They don't celebrate Christmas here anyway. Even if they did, the trees don't grow in this climate. Also, the island is largely volcanic rock and a clay-like mud."

"Are there volcanoes there?" Parker asked with big eyes. "Why didn't you tell me that before! That is SO cool!"

"The island itself is non-volcanic. It is a volcanic formation from a large underwater volcano. So there aren't really any volcanoes that rise up out of the ground like in pictures you see in books. But there are hot springs on the north side of the island that indicate that the underwater volcano does still have volcanic activity. Just not on the island."

"Oh," Parker looked disappointed a little bit, "but that's still cool. So there's lava and stuff underwater?"

"Yes. Though, it does cool off much quicker than it normally would out of water, so the lava is a blackish color almost immediately after eruption. Do you want me to bring you some volcanic rocks from the island? There are some really pretty ones. Most of them look like black glass."

"Really? You'd bring me some?"

"Yep."

"Cool."

"Alright, I believe it's getting to be about time for Parker to go have a bath and get ready for bed." Rebecca spoke up.

She hated to cut off the chatter, but she didn't want to deal with a cranky Parker in the morning. While he was off from school for the holidays, she still needed him to wake up in time for her to go to work. She wasn't as lucky to get so much time off for the holidays.

"But it's only eight! And it feels like we just started talking!" Parker whined.

"Yes, and you take forever to get in the shower and get stuff done on a normal night. Not to mention that bedtime is nine o'clock and it will take you a long time to wind down after talking to your dad and Temperance."

"No it won't! Can I have until eight-thirty to talk to dad? I'll shower quickly and then go straight to bed. I promise."

"No."

"Parker, do as you're told." Booth told his son. "We'll talk some more. I promise. We can talk every night before you go to bed if it's okay with your mom."

"Can we mom? Please."

"Please, Rebecca." Booth added in the same tone as his pleading son.

"Of course it's okay with me, Seeley, if you don't mind getting up early to do so. I have an idea as well. Temperance, I'll email you later about it and we'll talk more. Okay?"

"Sure," Brennan replied, wondering why she didn't just bring it up now.

"Parker, say goodbye."

"Bye, Dad! Bye, Bones! I love you both."

"Goodbye, Parker. I love you, too"

"I love you, too. Bye, Bub. We miss you like crazy! Talk to you tomorrow night."

"Goodbye, guys." Rebecca said.

"Bye," the partners responded together.

Rebecca disconnecting the video call and the screen went blank in front of them.

"Okay, Bones. First, we're going to google Charlie Brown's Christmas tree."

Booth opened the browser and found the cartoon picture.

"Oh. That's a sad looking tree Booth. I can see why Parker used it in an analogous manner when referring to less desirable looking Christmas trees. I'm sorry that we won't have a tree. I know how much you love Christmas."

"Having a tree would be nice." He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "But that's not the point of Christmas."

"Family is important. You reminded me of that, years ago."

"Yep, family. We're family, Bones. We have each other, and sure, I'd want a Christmas tree if we could have one, but you know… we have my Boothy tree, too. That's special. I feel lucky to have these two weeks. They could have easily denied my request and given me two different weeks instead of two that encompasses Christmas and the new year."

As he had been talking, he brought up the cartoon.

"And we have access to cheesy fluffy Christmas movies on the internet. First up, _A Charlie Brown Christmas_."

He pressed the play button and they settled in close to each other and watched the cartoon.

It didn't matter that they were in a place that didn't celebrate Christmas or that they didn't have a Christmas tree or that most of their family was not there with them. This would be a unique Christmas for the both of them that neither would forget, regardless of how it was spent.

It would be their first Christmas together.

* * *

**It is kind of weird writing about Christmas in August. Haha.**

**Life has been crazy lately. I'm trying to find a job. Not going well. If you would like to follow me on twitter for updates on stories and other personal stuff send me a message and I'll give you my name. It's slightly different than my name here, and I took it off of my profile page because people keep sending me hateful tweets about some things in my personal life, which you may notice have also all been removed from my account and stories here. It's sad how awful people can be.  
**

**Anyway, this has been one of my favorite chapters to write. I hope everyone enjoyed.**

**XOXO,  
CrayonClown  
**


	11. Under a Waterfall of Emotions

**I apologize for the wait. Hope you're still here and that you enjoy the playful, emotional ride this one takes you on.**

* * *

"Oh, no! Bones, it started raining. You can't take me to see my tree if it's raining." Booth whined. He really wanted to "meet" this tree that had kept his love company in his place for so much time.

"It's the rainy season here. It rains every day. There's nothing I can do about that. We can go later. I'm sure we can find _something_ to do until the rain lets up."

"Anything in _particular_ you have in mind?" He said with a waggle of his eyebrows, hoping she picked up on what he had in mind.

"Well, Booth, as you've noticed, there isn't a whole lot to really do here. I've spent more of my time playing that mindless Solitaire game on my laptop or out at the tree writing my daily letters to you. Our only _real_ options would be to call someone, play a game or…" Brennan trailed off, suddenly looking shy as a slight redness spread over her face.

"Or…" Booth prompted, knowing exactly what she was going to say. He could hardly believe that she had blushed about it though, but if the thought of them making love made her feel anything like it was making him feel at the moment, then he understood why Temperance Brennan would all the sudden be bashful. It was the most intense feeling he'd ever had, and that was just _thinking_ about it. He knew her feelings had to be even more intense.

"We could make love." She smiled that slightly crooked smile that he loved so much.

"We could," Booth agreed with one of the happiest smiles she'd ever seen on him. She also noticed the twinkle in his eyes.

She thought back to when she told Agent Perotta that Booth's eyes did not twinkle at everyone as it was a sign of sexual arousal.

"It would be a very satisfying way to pass the umph—"

He had her pinned underneath him on the couch with his mouth covering hers. Her response to his assault on her lips was just as passionate and just as aggressive after she realized what had just happened.

He frantically moved to remove her clothing as she tried to remove his as well.

They weren't getting far as they were both getting in the way of each other. Booth finally pulled back to say, "Whoa, we need to do this one at a time or we'll be trying to undress each other all day long, and I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little impatient here."

He sat back and finished pulling off the shirt that had only made it halfway up his body and off only one arm. Then he took care of his boxers before turning his attention to Brennan, who had kicked off her boots and was working on sliding out of her pants. He gave the material a tug toward her feet to speed up the process even more. Once she realized he had the bottom half covered—or rather, uncovered—she went for the clasp on her bra.

As soon as the last pieces of fabric left her body, he was on top of her again.

But this time his assault was lass graceful and he accidently banged his teeth into her lower lip. Once they were both assured that Brennan was uninjured, they broke into a fit of laughter at their clumsiness followed by softer more gentle kisses and sweet whispers of love and moans of passion and intense feelings.

.

"Come on, Booth." Brennan pleaded. She was excited to show him his tree now that the rain had let up.

"Bones…" Booth whined.

Booth had been begging her about going to see his tree pretty much since his arrival, but since he currently had Brennan naked in his arms, he was perfectly content in staying that way.

Brennan moved out of his arms and away from him, far enough that he couldn't pull her back into bed.

"It's stopped raining. Let's go."

"Okay, okay."

They quickly dressed into comfortable clothing and put together a pack with plenty of fresh water, a camera, some snacks, insect repellant, a few knives, a small 9mm pistol, a first-aid kit complete with a few vials of anti-venom for the most common poisonous predators, a satellite phone, a couple of flash lights, plenty of batteries, a blanket, and dry socks for both of them, before heading out of the door.

"We'll take the ATV to the dig site and then walk from there. It's too far to walk in the mud from here, but not far at all from there," she offered as an explanation.

They both got in and got strapped in and settled for the ride over the bumpy trails.

"How long does it take to get there?" Booth asked as the ATV splashed through the mud.

"To the dig site? Or to the tree?"

"Both."

"From where Daisy and I have been staying, it's about a half-hour walk. Five minutes by the ATV."

"And from the dig site to the tree?"

"It's not too far, but far enough that I never encountered anyone else that far outside of the dig site. Maybe fifteen minutes. People take walks around the site all the time to get a little space from time to time, which is actually how I found the tree in the first place. When you work with these people day-in and day-out and they're the only people you see both during work hours and personal hours, it can get… sometimes people just annoy each other. It can be very frustrating."

"Back home we work together and see each other on personal time. I don't annoy you; do I?" Booth asked as they pulled up and parked near a walkway that leads to the different areas of the dig site.

"Sure, some things about you annoy me, but you probably have similar thoughts about me. If you remember correctly, we did not always get along and we were not always completely civil towards one another at the beginning of our partnership."

They got out and grabbed their packs and started in the direction of the barracks used for the majority of the scientists. Daisy was staying with a few of the others that had not left the dig for their week off. Brennan decided that it would be a good idea to let Daisy know that they were going on a little hike out to the Boothy tree, just as a precautionary measure because of the dangers of traveling the jungle without someone knowing you're out there.

"True. Yeah, there are some things, but mostly you get under my skin in all the best ways."

"That sounds rather parasitic," Brennan laughed out loud. "I've really missed some of your annoying habits. Thinking with your gut, using annoying sports metaphors that I never understand, never letting me have a gun, mispronouncing words on purpose because you know it annoys me…"

"You love it. I spice up your world. Admit it. You'd still be stuck in a boring lab world without me. And," he said, bringing their hands, which had been linked since they started walking, up to his lips for a brief kiss, "we wouldn't have this. We wouldn't be us if we didn't have all of those little quirks and all of the bickering over the years that has drawn us to each other."

Brennan slowed her walking and eventually pulled Booth to a stop before they got within earshot of the residential tents. She pulled him into a fierce hug where they stayed for a good few minutes, "Please, Booth. Please, don't go back. Please…" she begged as she broke down.

"Bones, you know I don't have a choice," he tried to talk over her.

"Please, you just can't go back. I can't stand not having… all of your little annoyances on a daily basis. I—I just can't—"

"Bones, stop. Stop it. Please, just _stop_." He reached up to wipe her tears away when she leaned back to look at him. "I've got two weeks here, and I won't survive this if you keep telling me not to go back. Let's make the most of our time. Remember, we don't have much." She buried herself in his arms once again and held him tightly. "Let's not waste it with things we cannot currently change."

Brennan nodded into his neck. "I love you so much, Bones, but you cannot tell me to stay, because when it comes down to it, I just very well might, and where would that leave me? Facing criminal charges for going AWOL? You don't want that."

"No, I don't."

"And technically, it wouldn't even be considered going AWOL, it'd be desertion because I'd be staying with the intent of shirking an important duty with _no_ intention to go back at all. They'd be able to charge me with missing movement as well as desertion."

"And the punishment?" She asked, trying to gauge if it would be worth it.

"Missing movement is so minor in comparison to desertion that it wouldn't matter, but _just for desertion,_ the maximum possible punishments for leaving in order to shirk duties without intention to return, it would be a Dishonorable Discharge, forfeiture of all allowances and pay, reduction to the lowest level of enlisted grade, and confinement for five years. Also, I'm deployed to Afghanistan during a war-time. Desertion of my duties during a war-time can actually be punishable by death or life in prison."

"You're kidding! They don't actually give deserters the death penalty; do they?"

"It's only happened once, in 1945. Like I said, that's the written _maximum_ punishments, but in reality maximum punishment is rarely ever issued. I'd get Court-Martialed. There would be a trial. I'd get some time, some fines, and either a Dishonorable Discharge or an Other-than-Honorable Administrative Discharge. It's all subjective as to how bad they feel my circumstances were and they'll take into account my service record in the past and with the FBI."

"But you'd still have to do time and pay fines along with that other stuff?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry. I—I won't bring it up again. Just forget that I begged you to stay. Can I still say that I _wish_ you didn't have to go?"

Booth pulled her back into a hug and buried his face in her hair and kissed her head before whispering in her ear, "_That_ is something I _definitely_ want you to say. And please tell me that you won't only just miss my _annoyances_."

"I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that I miss you, _all_ of you. The good and the annoyances."

"I know. Same goes for you, too, you know."

Brennan nodded and Booth helped her compose herself before walking the final distance to go tell Daisy that they were going out to the tree.

The sun was now shining brightly through the tree tops and was warm on their skin as they walked through the jungle. The air was also muggy from the rain that morning.

Both of their skins glistened with a medium sheen of perspiration.

Booth kept glancing over at Brennan as her thin tank top and glowing skin caught his eyes. He was rather attracted to the way the tank hung over her chest, accentuating the swells of her breasts.

Brennan watched Booth glancing at her out of the corner of her eye, and she could tell that he was aroused at the sight of her. Knowing that he was watching, she used the hair tie around her wrist to pull her hair up off of her neck, opening it up for him to see more of her succulent skin.

Booth nearly tripped over vine not too long after she'd put her hair up.

"You should watch where you're walking, Booth. It can be quite dangerous to injure yourself out here or accidently walk over a poisonous snake because you weren't paying attention to your surroundings…" Then she added with a smirk, "and my chest doesn't count."

They paused for a second, as Brennan pulled out a bottle of water for them to take a small drink. After they'd each had a turn, she put the bottle back in her pack and they leaned against a couple of trees for a few minutes.

The terrain was rough and the heat and humidity were really getting to them, Booth especially. He'd been in a dry, flat and sandy environment and was not accustomed to the climate as Brennan was.

As they relaxed for a few minutes, the sounds of the jungle filled their ears. Birds, insects, animals…

"Do I hear a waterfall?" Booth asked.

"Yes, that means we are almost there."

"How come you never mentioned a waterfall?"

"The important object for me was the tree, not the waterfall. I didn't see a need to mention it. The tree is near a small pool of fresh water at the bottom of a small waterfall from a stream."

"We should get moving so I can see all of this," Booth said, suddenly energized by the prospect of seeing the most romantic place, so full of meaning for them, that he'd ever been.

As they got closer, the muffled roar of water cascading over the waterfall got louder.

"Once the tree was within sight, Brennan pointed it out to Booth, "It's that one," and he immediately pulled a camera out of his cargo pocket and snapped a picture of the tree with the waterfall in the background.

"Can you smell it yet?" She asked him. They were still several yards away from the clearing where the rock sat beneath the tree.

"Yeah. Wow, that's amazing. How did you even find this place?" Booth asked as he set his pack down on the rock and reached for hers from her shoulder to do the same.

"Like I said, sometimes we take walks when we need some space from each other. I needed a lot of space. I just kept walking and eventually, I found it and sat down underneath it. It's where I read and write most of our letters."

Booth unpacked and spread the blanket out for both of them to sit on before grabbing the bag with snacks in it and they both shed their boots before sitting down.

Booth offered some to Brennan and they sat and ate in silence for a few minutes before Booth spoke again, "I'm so glad that you have this place. Really, Bones. I don't have any place like this available to me. I go sit behind the mess hall when I need time for myself, or sometimes I go out a little further, but I can't go far because it's too dangerous. I'm just really happy for you that you can come here and escape reality for a bit."

Brennan nodded, keeping silent as she didn't know how to respond to that. She was sorry that he didn't have such a place in Afghanistan, but she was also glad that she had this place, and wanted to avoid inadvertently rubbing it in his face.

"How often do you come here?" Booth asked after a silence that Brennan didn't know how to fill in response to his previous statement.

"At least once every day, sometimes twice."

"Don't people complain about not being able to find you?"

"I'm sure they do, and I don't really care. Like I said before, I've found that my position here is not much more than a mouthpiece between the scientists and the major donors for the project."

"You sure looked in charge when I arrived the other day."

"Well, that's because I'm Doctor Temperance Brennan, and that scares them. I have the ability to make or break their careers with a single phone call and they all know it."

"You don't scare me."

"That's because, you aren't being directly graded or supervised by me, not to mention the fact that I _only _work with the _best_, and for some reason, you love me."

"Yes, I do."

"And I love you."

"I know."

Booth and Brennan laid down on the blanket for a while in each other's arms just allowing the sun to seep through the leaves blowing in the wind at the top of the trees. They lay there watching the water fall, and they dozed, until Brennan sat up.

She looked at Booth, and poked him in the ribs. "Come on sleepyhead, let's go for a swim."

Booth watched as Brennan stripped off her khaki shorts…

"Bones! What are you doing?" Booth asked, his eyes going wide.

"We're dipping skinnies, now get undressed."

… tank top…

"You mean skinny dipping. What if someone sees?" Booth said, as he still couldn't believe she was getting naked outside.

…bra…

"Look around Booth, do you honestly think there are people who are out there watching us?"

…underwear…

And then she dived into the freshwater pool, not waiting for him.

Once she surfaced, she stood up; her prominent nipples pebbling at the sudden coolness inflicted on them because of the water. She pulled the hair tie out of her hair and flicked her long, auburn hair back, and ran her hands through it, arching her back.

Booth hardened at the sight of her—well, from the second she started undressing, really.

"Are you coming or not?"

"Oh, if we're both undressed, there _will_be coming…" he muttered to himself as he sat up, the front of his shorts bulging as she watched him. As he stood, he gave his real answer, "Yeah, just a sec." He dropped his shorts and boxers to the ground and shucked his wife beater before he dove into the water after her.

Brennan swam to the waterfall, as Booth raced after her, then he saw her disappear under the waterfall, and stand up on the rocks behind the cascade of water.

He swam over to her, and climbed up onto the rocks beside her. She helped him to his feet and then they stood there under the water as he reached for her.

He caressed her body, pulling her hard against him, so that she felt his ardent desire pressing against her stomach.

She responded by cupping his ass cheeks, squeezing them before she raked her nails down his back, knowing the effect it would have on him.

Booth groaned as he picked her up, and leaned back against the rocks, spreading her legs with his.

He kissed her, and she responded, by trying to kneel and pushing him down onto the smooth, moss covered rocks, as he reached for her.

Booth caressed her bare breasts, kneading them with his hands as she leaned back, straddling his hips with a leg on each side.

He caressed an exposed pink nipple, the water flowing over it and down her body and over her curves as her fingers touched herself.

The sensation of the water running down her body and the coolness of the water was making her nipples harder.

Booth leaned down and kissed them each in turn, lovingly paying attention to both of them. He sucked them each, the warmth of his mouth a contrast to the cool water.

His hands were on her hips, guiding her movements as she leaned back and undulated against him.

He kissed his way down her stomach and around her navel before finding himself between her thighs. He kissed her outer lips, his tongue easing her lips apart. She gasped as he held her hips, the tip of his tongue teasing as it touched her everywhere except where she needed it, and she parted her thighs further for him to encourage him to give her what she wanted.

She stroked her fingers though his hair and pulled at it gently a few times before he finally gave her what she wanted. He gave a long lick up her slit before circling his tongue around her sensitive bundle of nerves. He worked her to the edge and then eased off and he went back to teasing her flesh.

She'd had enough of that and pulled his head away by his hair and then she pulled him up her body, turning him and wrapping a leg around him, placing him directly at her entrance. The tip of him edging inside of her only a little bit.

The feel of her right around the tip of his head was enough to get Booth to thrust his hips forward.

Her breathing shuddered as he thrust all the way into her. She inhaled deeply when he slowly moved out of her before slamming back in, pushing her back down against the moss covered rocks.

His hard erect cock pounded fast and shallowly inside her, as she tightened her vaginal walls around him, crossing her ankles behind him, trying to coax him deeper.

He braced himself, and thrust slower, but deeper. Her juices covered him as she felt the onset of a major orgasm. The sensation of fire inside her swept over her body and exploded causing her nerve endings to scream in ecstasy as she came on his still hard cock and her breathing quickened and became shallower. Her body tingled as the shockwaves coursed through her body and she moaned as she felt the onset of another orgasm as he kept pounding into her.

Her cries were drowned by the sound of the waterfall, as she dragged her nails down his back and dug them into his bare buttocks. He lowered his head to kiss her, their tongues intertwining and teasing each other as they lifted to new heights, and he plunged into her, deeper and faster, as she pulled him hard inside her, gripping him with her walls, squeezing him tightly as his breathing quickened.

She felt his balls tighten as she cupped them lightly, then Brennan felt the warmth as he came inside her, his come flooding inside her, their fluids mixing deep inside her.

Booth collapsed on top of her, as the cool water ran over their bodies. It was a while before they moved, lying there in the aftermath of passion as the water splashed around them.

Finally, when they did move, they both dove back into the water to do some actual swimming to cool themselves back down.

After a bit of playing, threats of dunking the other, and splashing each other, Brennan swam back to the clearing, Booth following her. They laid on the blanket in the tropical sun while their bodies dried, enjoying the sounds of the waterfall and the birds around them, before getting dressed again after they were dry.

But even after they'd already dressed and laid back down on the blankets to rest a bit before leaving, they couldn't keep their hands to themselves. Booth felt Brennan run her hand across his stomach, and he felt his cock twitch in response to Brennan's nails scraping across the fabric over his skin.

He opened his eyes to see her looking up at him, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief. As she unbuttoned his shorts, once again exposing his hard cock, she opened her mouth, her red lips puckered, and then covered him and she slowly took him inside her mouth. The warmth and the touch of her velvet tongue were making him swell and grow harder once more.

Brennan tasted his silky soft skin and the pearl of arousal that was beading on the head as he let her suck him to paradise and back.

* * *

**Please take the time to review. I value all of your opinions. They really do mean a lot to writers.**

**Thank you so much for reading.**

**XOXO,  
CrayonClown  
**


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